• Meta selects Safaricom as landing partner for a high-capacity cable.

• The system will be fully funded by Meta’s subsidiary Edge Network Services.

• The project aims to boost Kenya’s connectivity and digital resilience.

Safaricom’s subsea cable project is moving forward. The Kenyan telecom company announced on October 28 the signing of an agreement with U.S. tech firm Meta, which has appointed it as the landing partner for a new high-capacity submarine cable linking Oman and Kenya.

The cable system will be fully financed by Edge Network Services Limited, a Meta subsidiary. Under the agreement, Safaricom will manage the cable segment within Kenyan territorial waters as well as the related onshore infrastructure.

According to Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa, the partnership positions the company to “meet the surging demand for high-capacity, low-latency connectivity which is critical for powering economic growth, cloud adoption, and digital innovation.” He added that the infrastructure places Safaricom at the forefront of digital transformation, providing businesses, communities, and consumers with the bandwidth needed to thrive in a connected world.

Safaricom and other Kenyan telecom operators currently rely on several subsea cables, including SEACOM, PEACE, 2Africa, and EASSy. Historic operator Telkom Kenya holds landing rights for five cables connecting the country. These systems are often prone to outages, sometimes prolonged, which disrupt connectivity—the most recent major breakdown in East Africa occurred in May 2024.

The new cable will not only provide additional international capacity but also greater redundancy. For instance, Maroc Telecom invested $150 million in a dedicated cable linking its Moov Africa subsidiaries, which helped the group avoid service disruptions during a regional blackout on the Atlantic coast in March 2024.

As of June 2025, Safaricom held a 62.8% share of Kenya’s high-speed mobile Internet market, compared with 33.2% for its main competitor, Airtel, according to the Communications Authority. In the fixed Internet segment, the company had 735,749 subscribers and a 34.3% market share, ahead of Jamii (20.6%), Wananchi (12.7%), and Poa Internet (12.5%). Mobile Internet revenue reached 72.9 billion Kenyan shillings ($564.2 million) in 2025, up 72.9% year-on-year.