Liquid Telecom has partnered with Ekinops, with the latter to supply South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia’s new long-haul DWDM network, set to be the longest fibre network on the continent.
More than 2,500 kilometres long, the network will complement Liquid Telecom’s existing 13,000 kilometre fibre network, which runs across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho and South Africa.
Wavelengths on the optical network will be able to reach 10G.
Nic Rudnick, chief executive officer (CEO) of Liquid Telecom, said: “Congratulations to everyone who worked on this project, which has set the standard for the industry. We choose to build and own our fiber networks in Africa wherever possible, and we trust Ekinops to help us cross the massive distances found in this continent.”
Jonathan Amir, Ekinops’ vice president of sales in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said: “Liquid Telecom is the leading wholesale provider in Africa. With our long haul technology we helped Liquid expand their optical network cost-effectively and overcome geographical challenges.
“Their network will enable millions of new people to connect to the Internet and we are very proud they chose us as their partner.”
As a result of the partnership, it is expected Liquid Telecom will only need to install five amplification sites, rather than 16, because of Ekinops’ DynaFEC(R) dynamic forward error correction technology.
