Benzinga | Aug 16, 2021 01:34PM EDT

Facebook To Extend Africa's Undersea Cable Network: Bloomberg

* Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and some of the world's largest telecommunications carriers, China Mobile Ltd (OTC:CHLKF) and MTN Group Ltd, will likely build a wider-than-earlier planned giant sub-sea cable in Africa, Bloomberg reports.

* Other project partners include Telecom Egypt SAE (TEGPY), Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ:VOD), and Orange SA (OTC:FNCTF).

* They plan to add the Indian Ocean island countries of Seychelles and Comoros, Angola, and a new connection to Nigeria.

* The expansion is in addition to a recently announced link to the Canary Islands, bringing connection-landings to 35 in 26 countries. The 2Africa investment will see a 37,000-kilometer cable connecting Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, operational by 2024.

* The tech giants like Facebook and Alphabet Inc's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google aim to tap growing demand for fast-data transfers from streaming movies to social messaging and telemedicine.

* Price Action: FB shares traded higher by 0.12% at $362.74 on the last check Monday.