Facebook and some of the world’s largest telecommunications carriers, including China Mobile, Vodafone Group and MTN Group, are joining forces to build a giant subsea cable to help bring more reliable and faster Internet across Africa.

Now tech giants, led by Facebook and Google, are behind about 80% of the recent investment in transatlantic cables, driven by demand for fast-data transfers used for streaming movies to social messaging.

Google announced its own subsea cable connecting Europe to Africa last year, using a route down the west coast.

2Africa is expected to come into operation by 2024 and will deliver more than the combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa, according to the statement.

Among the longest

Facebook has partnered on the new cable with two of Africa’s biggest wireless carriers, Johannesburg-based MTN Group and Telecom Egypt.