Fugro has started its shallow water campaign for the subsea fibre optic cable project “2Africa,” which will connect 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe once installed and deliver more than the total combined capacity of all the subsea data cables serving Africa today
Fugro supports the project with the expertise of offshore and onshore surveys, including a geophysical route survey and superficial geotechnical testing to overcome any challenges along the planned route.
Fugro launched its survey programme for Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN), which includes a pre-installation and engineering survey, allowing support and desk study consultancy, back in March and work from its 70-metre multi-purpose vessels Fugro Gauss and Fugro Supporter will continue for approximately one year, excluding any further route development and work.
Fugro has already speeded up the cable engineering and manufacturing phase by providing multibeam echosounder data to the ASN project team “on the fly” during the first phase of the project by conducting the deep-water reconnaissance survey first.
Malte Cesson, Fugro’s commercial manager for marine site characterisation in Bremen, Germany, said, “The challenging scope of work is further complicated by Covid-19 and the associated protocols, but our unrivalled strategic partnership with ASN means we are confident of successful completion within the required time frame and budget.”
The 2Africa cable system is based on the latest fibre-optic technology and will allow resilient and improved low latency network traffic in times of increasing demand for bandwidth. Working towards a cable completion date in 2023/early 2024, the system will have a length of over 37 000 km, supporting 4G, 5G growth and fixed broadband access for hundreds of millions of people and companies.
