Updated : June 16, 2014 12:00 pm,Dubai
By Editor
By Editor
Historic development for businesses in East Africa as new regional fibre ring improves Internet resilience with previously unavailable routing options.
Liquid Telecom has announced that it has completed the build of the East Africa Fibre Ring which connects Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and back into Kenya; creating the first fully redundant regional fibre ring, connecting these countries to each other and the rest of the world. This will ensure that businesses across the East African community now receive continuity of Internet connectivity and a much more reliable service.
The East Africa Fibre Ring ensures that Liquid Telecom customers will not be affected by fibre cuts, which have blighted users in Burundi, DRC, Uganda, and Rwanda up to now. Network outages will no longer cause long periods of down-time when businesses cannot connect to the internet. For the first time, in the event of a fibre cut, internet traffic is automatically and instantly re-routed around the ring, giving consistently high speeds and continuous uptime for businesses and their customers, ensuring business continuity across the region.
The new East Africa Fibre Ring ensures more reliability and security of data connectivity, internet and business services than has ever been available, with Liquid Telecom showing measurable service improvements and superior SLA’s to businesses.
Nic Rudnick, CEO of the Liquid Telecom Group, said: “This is a historic service improvement for the people and businesses of east Africa, especially those in Rwanda, DRC, Burundi and Uganda, who will not have experienced such reliable internet previously. This pioneering achievement will add value to east African businesses and enable online trade within the East African community and globally, with reliable connectivity comparable to anywhere else in the world.
“Customers will immediately start to feel the benefits from our $20million investment in the region. The completion of the East Africa Fibre ring takes us another step towards building Africa’s digital future and giving better value for everyone using our network”.
The new fibre ring forms part of Liquid Telecom’s Pan-African fibre network, the largest single fibre network on the continent, spanning more than 17,000km across country borders and connecting areas where no fixed network has existed before. The completion of the ring is just the latest in a series of major achievements for multi-award-winning Liquid Telecom, a pioneering company which is widely recognised to have changed the face of telecoms in Africa.
Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera, Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), the regional intergovernmental organisation of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, said: “This is a huge milestone for East Africa. By providing our nations with a 21st century broadband network that directly connects us to each other and the outside world, Liquid Telecom continues to help the economic development of our region. I deeply admire, commend and give thanks to the company for their ongoing commitment, investment and resolve in creating a fibre ring of this scale.”