Tech giant Facebook announced Monday it will extend its undersea cable in Africa with direct connections to Angola, Nigeria, the Seychelles and the Comoros, seeking to increase Internet speed on the continent.

According to Multi News portal, citing financial information agency Bloomberg, Facebook, Chinese telecom company China Mobile, and MTN Group are going to build a more comprehensive undersea cable than originally planned, which joins the recently announced connection to the Canary Islands, bringing a direct connection to 35 countries instead of the 26 initially announced.

"The significant investment by Facebook in 2Africa leverages other investments we have made on the continent, including infrastructure investments in South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRCongo]," according to a company statement, quoted by Bloomberg.

Tech companies Facebook and Alphabet, owner of Google, underpin 80% of the latest investments in transatlantic connections, seeking to tap into the growing demand for fast data transfer that is used in every segment, from medical appointments to streaming movies or exchanging messages on social networks.

The investments in recent years, which amount to nearly $1 billion, follow on from the $20 billion invested by telephone companies in submarine fiber optic networks following the strong expansion of technology companies in the 1990s.

Production of the first segments of this underwater infrastructure has already begun in the United States of America, and will include a 37,000 kilometer cable to connect Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

The 2Africa link should be operational by 2024 and will guarantee more than the entire current capacity of all cables serving the African continent, the statement quoted by the financial information agency adds.