This is its first access to an international fiber optic submarine cable. The country is thus laying « the foundations for the largest national telecommunications infrastructure project » in its history, according to Deputy Prime Minister Mr Soares Sambu.

The connection system links the town of Suru, in northeastern Guinea-Bissau, to the Antula power plant on the outskirts of Bissau, a distance of 30 km. An internal distribution network will be built to carry the data to other parts of the country.

The project to connect Guinea-Bissau to the international ACE submarine cable began in 2017. It is the result of an agreement signed between the government and mobile operators Orange and MTN. Guinea-Bissau was to invest $31.5 million obtained from The World Bank while each of the 2 operators was to contribute about $8 million over 5 years.