Liquid Telecom and Nokia have today announced a two-year partnership to upgrade their existing fiber network. This will result in a faster and more reliable connection along the route from the Indian Ocean to data centers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and neighboring countries.
The upgrade allows Liquid Telecom to meet the growing demand from its carrier, mobile operator and internet service provider customers for higher-capacity inter-networking services.
Liquid Telecom will become the first communications solutions provider to connect through their own network with nearly every country that borders Kenya. Whilst also providing an alternate fiber route to submarine for other landlocked countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Congo.
Ben Roberts, Liquid Telecom CTO in a press statement; “Teaming up with Nokia, we’ve been able to quickly adapt to the industry’s rapid growth within the region and greater access to our high-speed fibre network and cloud services across East Africa.”
He further said the upgrade comes at a time when more mobile operators are planning to increase their backbone bandwidth as they prepare for 5G which is driving the demand for high speed city to city internet links.
Daniel Jaeger, Head of the Central, East and West Africa Market Unit at Nokia, said with their DWDM/OTN network, Liquid Telecom can offer the high capacity and low latency needed for its customers ultimately connecting all of Africa to the digital world.
This deployment began in Oct. 2018, and is expected to to reach over 85 million mobile subscribers across Kenya and its neighboring countries.