Econet Global subsidiary Liquid Telecom, which bought South Africa’s Neotel earlier this year in a R6.5bn deal, has completed 100G upgrades to key routes on its East Africa fibre ring.
The upgrade to 100G wavelengths takes advantage of the latest dense wave-division multiplexing technology from Ekinops.
It offers up to 10 times the speed of previously used 10G wavelengths, allowing Liquid Telecom to provide its enterprise and wholesale customers with additional capacity and increased speeds, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“For the first time, Liquid Telecom will provide 100G links to the cities of Kigali in Rwanda, Kampala and Tororo in Uganda, and Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya, with further 100G upgrades planned for the East Africa fibre ring in the near future,” the company said.
“By upgrading to 100G, Liquid Telecom is ensuring that its fibre backbone can meet the rising demand for high-bandwidth video and Internet services from businesses and consumers across the region,” said group CEO Nic Rudnick.
The East Africa ring forms a key part of Liquid Telecom’s pan-African fibre network, which consists of 50 000km of infrastructure. Completed in 2014, it links Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, with onward connectivity to its fibre networks in Burundi and the eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also offers direct access to international subsea cables.
Liquid Telecom’s acquisition of Tanzanian Internet service provider Raha in February enhanced the East Africa ring. It plans to invest further in the roll-out of fibre across Tanzania, it said.
Microsoft
Separately, the company said it has partnered with Microsoft through the software giant’s Cloud Solution Provider programme to provide cloud services across Africa.
In terms of the agreement, Liquid will provide businesses with cloud services and products, including Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, Office 365, Enterprise Mobility Suite and Windows 10.
Initially on offer to customers in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Zimbabwe, Microsoft’s cloud services will eventually be made available across Liquid Telecom’s entire network footprint, it added. — © 2017 NewsCentral Media
