Umoja

Overview

Umoja is a submarine cable system connecting Australia and South Africa, spanning the southern Indian Ocean corridor between these two countries. Owned by Google, the cable is planned to provide direct connectivity between the southwestern coast of Australia and the eastern coast of South Africa.

Route and Landings

In Australia, Umoja will land at Mandurah, Western Australia, a coastal city south of Perth on the Indian Ocean seaboard.

In South Africa, the cable will land at Amanzimtoti, a coastal town on the KwaZulu-Natal coast south of Durban on the Indian Ocean.

Ownership and Operators

Umoja is owned solely by Google. Google has invested heavily in subsea cable infrastructure globally, developing and owning multiple cable systems across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean regions to support its network of data centres and cloud services.

Status and Timeline

Umoja is planned for readiness for service in 2027. The cable is not yet in service at the time of writing.

Regional Context

The Australia–South Africa corridor across the southern Indian Ocean carries connectivity between two of the Southern Hemisphere's most significant economies. Umoja will enter service alongside several other cable systems active or planned in the broader region. The 2Africa cable, with a ready-for-service date of 2024, serves South Africa as part of a large circumferential African system. Project Waterworth, another Google-backed initiative spanning approximately 50,000 kilometres, also touches both Australia and South Africa. Asia Connect Cable-1 (ACC-1), planned for 2028, and Honomoana, planned for 2026, further expand Australia's subsea connectivity options, while the long-established Southern Cross Cable Network and Africa Coast to Europe cable serve Australia and South Africa respectively in their own corridors. Umoja therefore enters a corridor that is gaining increased cable investment from both consortium and single-operator projects.

Strategic Role

By linking Mandurah on Australia's west coast directly to Amanzimtoti on South Africa's east coast, Umoja will establish a dedicated southern Indian Ocean route between the two countries. With only two landing points, the cable provides a focused, point-to-point connection rather than a multi-branched regional network, offering a direct path across a corridor that has historically had limited dedicated cable infrastructure compared to routes running through Asia or northward along Africa's coast.