Barcelona, Spain – March 5, 2025 –BCS Group, a leading Pan-African wholesale telecom infrastructure provider, has announced the completion of its Lake Tanganyika Submarine Cable Project, the deepest inland undersea fiber optic cable in the world. The announcement was made by BCS Group CEO at MWC Barcelona, the world's largest and most influential connectivity event, taking place from March 3-7, 2025.
Lake Tanganyika submarine cable
BCS Group’s Lake Tanganyika submarine cable spans 400 kilometers, reaching depths of 800 to 1,300 meters. This groundbreaking project enhances connectivity across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and surrounding regions, bringing affordable, high-speed internet to 7 million people in South Kivu province and 3.7 million people in the Lake Tanganyika region.
The deployment follows BCS Group’s successful submarine installations in Lake Albert (2018-2019) and the Congo River (2022), reinforcing its expertise in challenging underwater fiber deployments.
BCS Group currently is operating under licenses in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Angola. The company also serves Burundi, South Sudan, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Ethiopia at their respective border points.
“As the heart of Africa and custodian of a majority of natural resources required to drive modern life, the development and prosperity of Congo is central to the development of our continent.” said Yonas Maru, Founder and MD of BCS Group. “The Lake Tanganyika submarine fiber cable combined with the 2,500 kms. of railroad and 2,000 kms. of Congo river cables being deployed enables us to overcome the lack of road infrastructure in Congo to light up the “dark” continent, provided East across to West Africa connectivity and take a step towards leapfrogging the development ladder.”
Lake Tanganyika is the longest lake in Africa (660 km long) and the second deepest lake in the world (1,436 meters deep). BCS Group has been laying a 24-core single armored submarine cable in Lake Tanganyika to connect Northern DRC with Southeastern DRC, with potential expansion to Tanzania and Burundi.
The Lake Tanganyika Submarine Cable Project was developed in collaboration with major telecom operators including Airtel. The project is a key component of BCS Group’s broader mission to provide
resilient and redundant backhaul connectivity to mobile network operators and internet service providers across Africa.
About BCS Group and its Leadership
Founded in 2009, BCS Group is a leading Pan-African telecom infrastructure company providing fiber connectivity solutions across Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. With a network spanning over 80,000 km, BCS specializes in fiber optic construction, wholesale IP transit, and global and regional connectivity services. The company partners with leading telecom operators such as Vodacom, Airtel, Orange and content providers such as Meta, delivering cutting-edge connectivity solutions that drive Africa’s digital economy.
BCS Group owns one of the biggest terrestrial fiber networks in Africa, spanning over 20,000 km across 7 countries. The network connects Mombasa, Kenya, to the West Africa Cable System (WACS) through Muanda, DRC and Luanda, Angola providing vital capacity to landlocked countries while ensuring network redundancy in case of unplanned outages.
Yonas Maru, the Founder and Managing Director of BCS Group. Yonas has a background in private equity, investment banking, and management consulting, as well as software engineering and systems. Prior to BCS Group, he worked at Kingdom Zephyr Management, where he led debt securitization transactions, including the execution of a $200 million securitization deal. He also worked at McKinsey & Company, advising multinational corporations in the telecommunications and IT industries. Yonas holds an MBA from Columbia University and an MSc in Civil Engineering from Cornell University.
