Liquid Dataport, a business of Liquid
Intelligent Technologies (Liquid), a pan-African technology group, has launched
its newest fibre route connecting Mombasa, Kenya, to Muanda on the west coast
of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
This is the shortest route
connecting East to West Africa, reducing data transmission latency by 20
milliseconds. The much anticipated 3,800km route marks a new era in East-West
connectivity on the continent, adding to Liquid’s One Africa Digital Network,
which now spans 110,000 km.
The fibre
route connects Kenya and DRC, passing through Uganda and Rwanda and bringing
more reliable and affordable broadband connectivity to over 40 million people
living and working in all the major cities along the route. The latest route
complements Liquid’s earlier achievement, already a first, in 2019, linking Dar
Es Salaam to Muanda on the West Coast of DR Congo via Zambia.
Hardy
Pemhiwa, President & Group Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Intelligent
Technologies, said, “The real challenge
today is closing the access-usage gap in Africa so that more Africans can use
the internet technologies available to them, now and in the future. This
East-West route which compliments our existing Pan Africa fibre network, is significant
because it is helping to solve that problem – it not only brings global traffic
to the continent but also improves the cost economics of Africa’s broadband
Internet access.'"
The new
East-West route enables Liquid’s customers to take advantage of capacities
ranging from 1Mbps to 100,000Mbps. It enables cloud supplier redundancy with
access to multiple data centres and cable landing stations, ensuring maximum
uptime. This is hugely beneficial to the many businesses in East, Central &
Southern Africa that are embarking on their digital transformation journey.
In order for
African enterprises to expand continentally and compete with their global
counterparts, they need stable, reliable connectivity with low latency and
access to numerous digital tools to optimise their businesses.
“We have a significant number of wholesale, enterprise
and hyperscale customers along this route, and we fully support them in
operating their global networks. The availability of our latest and shortest
East to West route brings many proven economic and social benefits – from
providing access to online educational resources to creating more jobs and
driving the adoption of new technologies,” said David Eurin, Chief Executive Officer of Liquid
Dataport.
The
Mombasa-Muanda route will help global organisations looking for Internet
resiliency avoid the Red Sea and Europe routes which have become bottlenecks
for global internet traffic, and will provide faster fibre connectivity to
landlocked countries on the African continent, creating significant
attractiveness for growing connectivity hubs in Kenya and DRC.
By: Kanto Okanta