After Cape to Cairo, Liquid Telecom launches first direct land-based fibre link connecting East to West Africa

Having created a fibre connection from Cape to Cairo, Liquid Telecom has now linked the east and west coasts of Africa to its superfast internet network.

This follows the completion of a new high-capacity fibre link running 2,600-kilometre across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), that links neighbouring Tanzania and Zambia to the firm's existing One Africa broadband network. This continent-wide network is now nearly 70,000km and is central to its strategy to build a single fibre network linking up the whole continent, it says.

The African telecoms group, which also hosts Microsoft's data centres in Cape Town and Johannesburg, announced this east-west link at the AfricaCom conference in Cape Town.

 “Liquid Telecom has connected East to West Africa with the most direct digital corridor across the southern hemisphere. We have set a new benchmark and achieved a historic milestone in our vision to create a more connected Africa,” said Liquid Telecom Group CEO Nic Rudnick. 

“By linking the DRC to Liquid Telecom’s rapidly expanding pan-African fibre network and the rest of the world, this transformative infrastructure is creating 

Calling it "a foundation for digital growth", he says this fast and reliable broadband connectivity will "advance society, fuel innovation and help champion pan-Africa trade”.

For Kinshasa's 11-million population, they will have an alternative to mobile broadband, as will another 5-million citizens in the other DRC cities along the route.

Dobek Pater, director at researchers Africa Analysis, says Africa has been lacking a direct east-to-west telecommunications backbone. 

"Liquid Telecom has achieved what African states and organizations have been contemplating for years without success," he says.

Liquid Telecom Group CEO Nic Rudnick.

The high-capacity fibre-optic backbone that connects undersea cables on the east coast with cables on the west coast of Africa has not only considerably shortened the communications route but contributed to keeping the traffic local, he adds.

"it also laid the groundwork for connecting millions of Africa’s citizens (especially in the DRC) to the internet and the world. This is a significant milestone in continued expansion of modern telecommunications infrastructure across the African continent, supporting governments’ policies aimed at closing the digital divide within their countries and ultimately ensuring ubiquitous connectivity.”

Rudnick believes that this "is history in the making” after the direct land-based fibre link between Cape Town and Cairo was completed in 2018.

Now, "more African cities, more communities and more businesses will have access to reliable and faster internet connections than ever, and many for the first time. This will bring proven economic and social benefits throughout the country, including vastly improved healthcare, education, social welfare and trade".

Sources: Liquid Telecom | Forbes | JIC Media