Facebook is building underwater cable around Africa to provide easy internet connectivity.

Map showing underwater internet cable being build by Facebook to provide easy internet connectivity around Africa

By Nangayi Guyson

Kampala, Uganda (RTN)- Expensive internet in Africa will soon become something of the past as Facebook has  partnered with giant Telecom companies around the world to build a massive underwater cable around Africa to provide easy internet connectivity.

In a project dubbed 2Africa , Facebook has partnered with giant Telecom companies like China Mobile, South Africa's MTN, France's Orange and Britain's Vodafone to connect the continent's 1.3 billion inhabitants online and it states it will "provide nearly three times the total network capacity of all the subsea cables serving Africa today."

Facebook said the 2Africa project was made more efficient by the use of aluminum rather than copper fibers, as these could help increase network capacity. The company is now in the process of developing a new crossing linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, which it claims will be the first in that region in more than a decade.

"2Africa is a continuation of our ongoing efforts to expand global network infrastructure," Facebook said. "We have collaborated with partners all over the world to build several subsea fiber-optic cables that are leading the industry in terms of reach, capacity, and flexibility.

A primary goal of the initiative, Facebook says, is to bring increased connectivity to Africa. The continent is "currently the least connected" in the world, the company wrote in a blog post Wednesday, with just over a quarter of its population having internet access.

Facebook claims the underwater cable being build will be "nearly equal to the circumference of the Earth and  be measuring 37,000 kilometers  about 22,991 miles  in length.

Facebook is aiming at  interconnecting the Middle East , Europe and  23 African countries.