Riyadh, 17 February 2023: stc Bahrain and center3 have officially completed the marine survey for 2Africa Pearls in Bahrain, marking a significant milestone in the development of the overall 2Africa subsea cable project. 

The 2Africa Pearls subsea cable is a unique transcontinental communication system that connects 33 countries through 46 landing locations, spanning across three continents, and positioning the Middle East at the center of operations. 

Once completed, 2Africa Pearls will break records as the longest subsea cable ever deployed. Spanning over 45,000 km in length, the cable system will provide reliable connectivity and internet services across a number of vital landing locations in KSA, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Pakistan, and India.

The landing in Bahrain signifies momentous technological progress for GCC nations. The cutting-edge technology offers exceptional connectivity speeds that have the potential to transform the regional and international communications sector. The unparalleled speed and reliability of the 2Africa Subsea cable will drive economic growth, encourage innovation, and enhance collaboration in the MENA region.

Eng Nezar Banabeela, CEO of stc Bahrain: “This is a landmark achievement for us and affirms stc Bahrain’s commitment to spearheading digital transformation and solidifies the region’s position as a regional ICT hub.  Investments in this advanced network infrastructure will drive economic growth for businesses, serve industries that rely on the internet and enhance the living standards in the region. 2Africa Pearls will vastly increase the data backbone of Bahrain by 100x providing high-speed connectivity services that will accommodate the futuristic heavy data-demand.”

According to Fahad A. Alhajeri, CEO of center3: “Connecting 2Africa Pearls with Bahrain marks another significant accomplishment for center3. The project progress is critical to center3 in linking Asia, Africa, and Europe. center3 is dedicated to investing in communication infrastructure with the aim of offering exceptional connectivity to its customers and contributing to the realization of the Kingdom's 2030 Vision. The 2Africa subsea cable is a vital step towards achieving this objective and solidifying center3's position as a leading player in the region's connectivity landscape.”

The subsea cable is built through a unique pioneering design that tackles a number of geological complications faced in the region and guarantees unmatched service stability for customers. 

About center3

center3 is a subsidiary of stc. center3 is Saudi Arabia’s largest provider of carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions to telecom, content and cloud providers. center3 is already landing 11 cable systems into Saudi Arabia and is currently developing an additional 5 (2Africa being one of them). With the landing of 2Africa, center3 strengthens Saudi Arabia’s position as a regional and international data exchange hotspot and aims to become the regional Internet hub.

About the 2Africa consortium 

The 2Africa consortium is made up of leading telecommunication companies from around the world. These companies include center3, Meta, China Mobile International, MTN Global-Connect, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC. This diverse group of organizations represents the interests of several countries and brings together extensive experience and expertise in the telecommunications industry.

About stc Bahrain

stc Bahrain, a subsidiary of stc Group, is the fastest-growing, most innovative telecommunication operator in Bahrain. Since its inception in 2010, stc Bahrain revolutionized the telecommunications industry in the Kingdom of Bahrain and quickly became a market leader, a position that it kept to this day through investing in next-generation technologies and introducing innovative solutions to the people of Bahrain. In 2018, stc Bahrain disrupted fintech with its stc pay ecosystem of services.

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