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Google brings high-speed internet to Togo through a submarine cable connecting Portugal to South Africa |  Technique

Google brings high-speed internet to Togo through a submarine cable connecting Portugal to South Africa | Technique

This is a branch of the so-called Equiano cable that runs from Portugal. The arrival of the fiber-optic cable was announced in June 2019. It is named after Olaudah Equiano, an 18th-century African slave who gained freedom, wrote a book and was instrumental in the quest for the abolition of slavery. Later this year, the cable is supposed to hit shore in Nigeria, Namibia and South Africa.

The project is part of Google’s investment program to advance the digitization of the African continent. The group has allocated one billion dollars (more than 900,000 euros) for this purpose.

The choice of Togo was not accidental. The country is a logistics hub in West Africa, including the largest port in the region. In 2020, Togo was also the first country in West Africa to establish a 5G network. However, there are still many gains to be made. According to World Bank figures, by 2020, only one-fifth of the population had direct access to the Internet.

The Equiano cable is the third submarine cable that Google is laying, along with the Dunant cable between America and France and the Curie cable from America to Chile, Tweakers reports. Google is also a member of a number of consortia that have their own intercontinental cables.