Four Subsea Cable Operators Join Forces to Build AAE-2
Four Subsea Cable Operators Join Forces to Build AAE-2
By Paula Gilbert, Connecting Africa
June 11, 2025
A consortium of four major subsea cable operators – PCCW Global, Sparkle, Telecom Egypt and Zain Omantel International (ZOI) – are joining forces to construct the Asia-Africa-Europe-2 (AAE-2) subsea cable system.
A consortium of four major subsea cable operators have signed an agreement to collaborate on the construction of the Asia-Africa-Europe-2 (AAE-2) subsea cable system.
The four operators are PCCW Global, Sparkle, Telecom Egypt and Zain Omantel International (ZOI).
The project aims to establish a next-generation subsea digital link connecting Hong Kong and Singapore to Italy, traversing terrestrial corridors across Thailand, the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt.
“AAE-2 will also feature strategic extensions to additional key destinations across its route, further enhancing intercontinental connectivity and supporting the growing demands of cloud services, content delivery and digital transformation initiatives across the regions,” the consortium said in a statement.
By integrating both subsea and terrestrial infrastructure, AAE-2 will create a data highway between Asia, Africa and Europe.
The consortium believes the project marks a vital step in addressing the increasing demand for robust Internet infrastructure and will facilitate faster data transfer and improved connectivity across the three geographical regions.
The group did not provide any timelines for the construction of AAE-2 or disclose how much each company plans to invest in the project.
Africa’s growing cable systems
AAE-2 will build on the legacy of Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1), which is a 25,000km submarine cable connecting Southeast Asia to Europe across Egypt.
This latest subsea cable system adds to the number of cables surrounding the continent and the systems linking Africa to other regions.
In recent years there has been growth from newer systems like Meta-backed 2Africa and Google-backed Equiano adding to more established systems like the West Africa Cable System (WACS), South Atlantic-3 (Sat-3) and Africa Coast to Europe (ACE).
In May 2024, Google announced it would build a subsea cable called Umoja that will connect Africa to Australia.
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