Google is preparing to build its third private subsea cable, Equiano, which will connect South Africa to Portugal, and branch out across the west coast of Africa.

Named for eighteenth-century Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist who was enslaved as a boy, Olaudah Equiano, the Europe-to-Africa cable is Google’s fourteenth subsea investment globally and the third private international cable after its recent Dunant and Curie cable systems.

Alcatel Submarine Networks was contracted in the fourth quarter of 2018 to build the cable, which will start in western Europe and run along the west coast of Africa between Portugal and South Africa, with a landing in Nigeria.

This first phase is expected to be completed in 2021.

Equiano will also comprise nine additional branching units along the route that can be used to extend connectivity to other African countries at a later stage.

This new cable, fully funded by Google, is based on space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology, which unlocks about 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve the region, the company says.

SDM increases cable capacity in a cost-effective manner, with 12 fibre pairs – compared with the six to eight traditionally used in subsea cables – and power-optimised repeater designs.

Google’s 6 400-km-long Dunant, which will connect the US and France when completed in 2020, was the first subsea cable to adopt SDM technology.

Equiano will also be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fibre-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching, providing Google a simplicity and flexibility to add and reallocate cable capacity in different locations as needed.

“[As] Equiano is fully funded by Google, we are able to expedite our construction timeline and optimise the number of negotiating parties,” the company says.

The company previously said that the deployment of its own private subsea cable improves global connectivity while providing value to customers.

“Owning the cable ourselves has some distinct benefits. Since we control the design and construction process, we can fully define the cable’s technical specifications, streamline deployment and deliver service to users and customers faster,” Google says.

Further, routing decisions that optimise latency and availability can more easily be made once the cable is deployed.

Google reported $47-billion in capital expenditure between 2016 and 2018, which included investments to improve its global infrastructure.

Google has invested in several consortium subsea cables, including Havfrue and the Hong Kong-Guam Cable system (HK-G), as well as Curie, becoming the first major nontelecommunications company to build a private intercontinental cable.

Havfrue is a consortium cable system, built in partnership with Facebook, Aqua Comms and Bulk Infrastructure, that connects the US to Denmark and Ireland and increases the capacity and resiliency in the group’s North Atlantic systems.

HK-G is a consortium with RTI-C and NEC that interconnects major subsea communication hubs in Asia.

Combined with Indigo – a subsea cable system in South-East Asia built in collaboration with Google, AARNet, Indosat Ooredoo, Singtel, SubPartners and Telstra – and other existing subsea systems, HK-G creates multiple scalable, diverse paths to Australia, increasing Google’s resilience in the Pacific.

“As a result, customers will experience improved capacity and latency from Australia to major hubs in Asia. It will also increase our network capacity at our new Hong Kong region.”

The company’s private subsea cables all carry the names of historical luminaries.

The Curie subsea cable, a private cable connecting Chile to Los Angeles, was named for renowned scientist Marie Curie, while Dunant was named for Red Cross founder and the first Nobel Peace Prize winner Henri Dunant.

“We are excited to bring Equiano online and look forward to working with licensed partners to bring Equiano’s capacity to even more countries across the African continent.”