Internet

Seacom’s new Nairobi-Kampala route strengthens regional connectivity with higher capacity, resilience and scalable digital infrastructure. (Image source: Seacom)

Seacom has launched a new high-capacity terrestrial network route linking Nairobi and Kampala, enhancing one of East Africa’s most important digital corridors

The new infrastructure is designed to improve connectivity reliability, increase capacity, and support the region’s growing demand for high-performance internet services.

The route connects major infrastructure hubs in Nairobi, Kisumu and Kampala, creating a more resilient pathway for data traffic moving inland from subsea cable landing stations in Mombasa. It transforms an established connectivity corridor into a modern, high-capacity backbone built to support East Africa’s expanding digital economy.

“We’re strengthening a route that already plays a central role in regional connectivity,” commented David Kariuki, chief technology officer at Seacom.

“We are ensuring that this segment is served by a high-capacity, carrier-grade network that can support the scale and performance today’s digital economy requires.”

Built for a rapidly growing digital economy

The Nairobi–Kampala corridor supports a wide range of sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, cloud platforms and digital commerce. With these industries experiencing continued growth, demand for reliable, low-latency connectivity is increasing across the region.

The upgraded route improves access to international bandwidth while enabling faster and more dependable data exchange between markets.

“The biggest impact will be felt across the broader internet economy,” Kariuki stated. “From service providers and banks to cloud operators and e-commerce platforms, organisations depend on stable connectivity to operate and grow. This investment directly improves their ability to deliver services.”

The infrastructure also strengthens regional connectivity beyond Kenya and Uganda, providing a more efficient route into neighbouring markets including Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, supporting cross-border digital services and regional trade.

Greater resilience and service availability

Network reliability was a key consideration in developing the new route, particularly due to historical challenges affecting connectivity along this corridor.

Seacom has deployed Automated Switched Optical Network (ASON) technology, enabling traffic to be automatically rerouted within under 50 milliseconds during network faults. This helps maintain service continuity even during multiple disruptions.

“Service availability has been a major consideration,” Kariuki explained. “By managing and controlling more of the route ourselves, and adding automated switching, we can maintain uptime even when there are breaks along the network.”

The route provides latency of approximately 7 milliseconds to Nairobi and 13 milliseconds to Mombasa, supporting real-time applications such as financial transactions, cloud workloads and enterprise services.

Alongside the traditional A104 corridor, Seacom will utilise an alternative route through Narok, Kericho and Kisumu. This dual-path strategy reduces reliance on a single connection and improves overall network resilience.

The use of two border crossings, Malaba and Busia, further enhances reliability by reducing single points of failure and improving stability for customers operating across borders.

Scalable infrastructure for long-term growth

The Nairobi–Kampala route has been designed to accommodate future digital demand. At launch, the network provides 1Tbps of capacity, with scalability up to 30Tbps as requirements increase. This enables Seacom to expand capacity without significant infrastructure redesigns.

“Demand for data in East Africa is accelerating,” commented Kariuki. “We’ve designed this network to scale alongside that growth, so clients can increase capacity as their needs evolve.”

Based on DWDM technology, the route supports multiple high-capacity interfaces, including 1GE, 10GE, 100GE and 400GE, providing flexible connectivity options for enterprises, service providers and hyperscale customers.

Strengthening Seacom’s regional network strategy

The new route forms part of Seacom’s wider investment in East Africa’s digital infrastructure.

“This is a continuation of the work we’ve been doing to strengthen our network across the region,” Kariuki said. “We upgraded our IP network in Uganda last year, and this route builds on that foundation by improving both capacity and quality across a key corridor.”

As digital services continue expanding across East Africa, the Nairobi–Kampala route provides a stronger foundation for connectivity, supporting economic development and enabling the region’s next phase of digital growth.

New subsea cable route between France and Tunisia enters service, enhancing digital resilience and capacity.

The ViaTunisia subsea cable segment between Marseille in France, and Bizerte in Tunisia, has reached Ready for Service (RFS) marking the transition from construction to full operational availability on a direct and resilient new route between southern Europe and North Africa  

From infrastructure design to live connectivity 

The journey to RFS began long before the cable touched the seabed. Designed as an open, point-to-point system with a 25-year design life, ViaTunisia moved through each phase: marine surveys, factory acceptance tests, cable loading, laying, shore landings and final splicing. Marine operations were carried out by Orange Marine’s Sophie Germain and Elettra TLC’s Teliri cableships, under the coordination of Elettra TLC, with system design and equipment delivered by Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). 

A European-supported infrastructure

ViaTunisia was co-financed by the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF Digital) program.

The Grant Agreement, signed in December 2022, provided funding covering 30% of the construction and management costs. This demonstrates the EU’s commitment to reinforcing digital connectivity, supporting the rapid growth of data traffic driven by digital transformation and AI, and enabling new opportunities for digital services, investments, and innovation. 

Creating a new digital bridge between Europe and Africa

ViaTunisia extends directly into Orange’s global infrastructure in Marseille, through a fully redundant urban fiber ring connecting all the Data Centers in the city. This set up enables seamless interconnexion and distribution of international capacity across Europe.

By combining the resilience, security and performance of a global backbone with Marseille’s role as a leading interconnection hub, ViaTunisia provides direct, high-capacity connectivity between North Africa and the wider digital world. It also multiplies route options in this area, especially in natural disaster-prone areas, minimising outages caused by cable failures, thus improving overall network resilience.

DE-CIX, Internet pour tous and UNITED S.A. have expanded ACIX into a second Kinshasa data centre to strengthen regional interconnection

DE-CIX, in collaboration with the NGO Internet pour tous and Kinshasa-based connectivity and web hosting provider UNITED S.A., has announced the expansion of ACIX (Africa Congo Internet Exchange) through the addition of a new presence at OADC Texaf’s FIH1 data centre in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

The development makes ACIX the first distributed Internet Exchange (IX) in the DRC and represents a significant milestone in the country’s digital infrastructure development. By extending operations into a neutral and modern colocation facility, the initiative is expected to strengthen local Internet traffic exchange, reduce latency, improve network resilience and create broader interconnection opportunities for operators and digital service providers across the region.

Launched in 2023, ACIX powered by DE-CIX was created as a neutral interconnection platform open to licensed telecom operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), cloud and content providers, enterprises, financial institutions, academic networks and international carriers operating within the DRC and surrounding markets.

The exchange is managed by DE-CIX on behalf of Internet pour tous under the company’s DE-CIX-as-a-Service (DaaS) programme. The NGO plays a key role in supporting and coordinating the ACIX initiative as a neutral digital ecosystem platform aimed at encouraging inclusive interconnection and wider digital growth across the country.

Through the platform, networks in equatorial Africa are able to exchange data more efficiently with lower latency, improving the performance of services and applications ranging from online education to Internet banking.

“ACIX is more than an Internet Exchange; it is foundational digital infrastructure for the future of Central Africa,” stated Hussein Ibrahim, CEO of UNITED SA. “Strong digital ecosystems are built on strong interconnection. ACIX represents an important step toward a more connected and digitally empowered region, where data can remain local, networks become more resilient, and innovation can scale across borders.”

Open Access Data Centres, one of Africa’s fastest-growing data centre operators, is providing the carrier-neutral infrastructure environment for the ACIX deployment at its Kinshasa campus through OADC Texaf. The company operates an expanding network of open-access and carrier-neutral data centres designed to support interconnected digital ecosystems across the continent.

“As a neutral infrastructure provider, our role is to enable open interconnection and support the development of the broader digital ecosystem,” said Mohammed Bouhelal, managing director and director, business development of OADC Texaf DC. “Hosting ACIX within a carrier-neutral environment contributes to creating a trusted platform where all ecosystem participants can interconnect on equal terms.”

DE-CIX said the addition of the new facility will allow more regional and international networks to connect to the exchange while benefiting from improved connectivity and localised traffic exchange.

“DE-CIX is proud to support ‘Internet pour tous’ and UNITED S.A. in the expansion of ACIX and the development of a distributed, data center and carrier neutral Internet Exchange for the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” commented Marco Brandstaetter, global program manager for DE-CIX as a Service at DE-CIX. “The integration of OADC Texaf’s newly-built Kinshasa facility will enable additional networks to connect to the exchange and benefit from improved connectivity. ACIX is creating digital opportunities for the DRC and equatorial Africa by aggregating networks and enabling low latency and resilient local data exchange.”

Kinshasa’s strategic location between two of Africa’s most densely populated regions positions the city as an important connectivity gateway linking countries from the Atlantic coast to the Indian Ocean. ACIX is expected to strengthen this role by serving as an interconnection hub for equatorial Africa, enabling networks to exchange data and host digital content with improved performance and reliability.

DE-CIX’s DaaS programme provides a range of managed services for partners seeking to establish Internet Exchanges and interconnection platforms, including installation, maintenance, provisioning, marketing and sales support, while the operational management remains fully handled by DE-CIX.

Via Africa submarine cable project aims to strengthen network resilience and connectivity diversity across West Africa

A new submarine cable initiative linking Europe and Africa along the Atlantic corridor is moving forward following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by a group of international telecom and digital infrastructure investors

The project, known as Via Africa, is intended to strengthen connectivity capacity, support rising data traffic demand and improve network resilience across the African continent.

The consortium behind the project includes Canalink, GUILAB, International Mauritania Telecom, Orange Group, Orange Côte d'Ivoire, Sonatel and Silverlinks.

The planned subsea system will establish a new route connecting Europe to South Africa, with landing stations expected in the United Kingdom, France and Portugal. The cable will also serve several Atlantic coastal destinations including the Canary Islands, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria, with further southern extensions planned to increase route diversity and connectivity reliability across additional African markets.

The project is structured around a consortium model that enables participating organisations to jointly invest in the infrastructure while taking part in governance and strategic decision-making. The approach is designed to provide partners with greater operational independence and infrastructure sovereignty while allowing them to contribute directly to decisions concerning system design, deployment and future operation.

Project stakeholders noted that the consortium framework remains open, with opportunities for additional telecom operators and digital infrastructure players to join the initiative at a later stage.

Via Africa is expected to improve the resilience of Africa’s international communications infrastructure by creating an alternative subsea pathway to complement existing cable systems. The new route is intended to strengthen redundancy and diversify connectivity options for countries located along the Atlantic coast.

During the project’s initial phase, consortium members will jointly fund a detailed marine route study aimed at determining the most suitable cable path based on technical, economic and resilience considerations.

At the same time, preparations are underway for the procurement phase, including the selection of a cable manufacturing and deployment partner as the project advances toward implementation.