Bayobab enhances East Africa’s connectivity with resilient cross-border fibre via railway infrastructure

Bayobab, a subsidiary of MTN Group, has marked a key milestone in advancing digital infrastructure across East Africa with the official launch of the Kenya Railway–Uganda Railway NLD Mombasa to Kampala fibre route

This strategic cross-border initiative significantly enhances digital integration between Kenya and Uganda.

The newly commissioned fibre route covers 260 km along the Uganda Railway corridor from Kampala to Tororo, extending to Malaba at the Kenya–Uganda border. It links directly to Kenya’s National Long Distance (NLD) fibre, which was introduced in 2024 and runs along the Kenya Railways Meter Gauge Route from Mombasa to Malaba. The seamless interconnection at Malaba integrates into Bayobab’s subsea cable systems in Mombasa, further reinforcing East Africa’s data transport capabilities and enabling high-capacity, low-latency connectivity from Uganda to global networks.

Strengthening regional digital infrastructure

"Kenya’s position as a regional digital gateway is further cemented by this cross-border collaboration. By interconnecting with Uganda via this high-capacity route, we are enhancing regional digital resilience, creating alternative routes for traffic, and opening new opportunities for businesses and communities along the corridor. This is not just fibre in the ground — it’s a new pathway for digital transformation across East Africa," commented Sylvia Anampiu, managing director: Bayobab Kenya.

Constructed between December 2024 and February 2025, the Kampala-to-Malaba segment is securely deployed along railway infrastructure, ensuring protection from road-based risks such as construction damage and providing stable and uninterrupted network service. This initiative aligns with Bayobab’s broader strategy of enabling secure and seamless cross-border digital connectivity throughout Africa.

Delivering impact through interconnection

As a landlocked country, Uganda gains significant strategic advantage from the route, which provides a shorter and more resilient connection to Mombasa’s subsea cable landing points. The infrastructure supports both rural broadband development and high-bandwidth enterprise services, while linking key data centres across Uganda and Kenya.

Designed to meet the demands of hyperscalers, service providers, and enterprises expanding in East Africa, the route ensures reliable and scalable digital access across the region.

This project underscores Bayobab’s ongoing commitment to building a robust, secure, and interconnected digital ecosystem in Africa. The Mombasa–Malaba–Kampala corridor represents one of several initiatives designed to digitally unite the continent and connect it more effectively to the global digital economy.

Bayobab Uganda launches Kampala-Malaba fibre route, boosting East Africa’s digital connectivity backbone

Bayobab Uganda, a subsidiary of MTN Group, has announced the successful completion of its newest and most direct fibre optic route, linking Malaba to Kampala

As the digital infrastructure arm of MTN, Bayobab plays a leading role in transforming connectivity across the East African Corridor. This critical infrastructure milestone reflects MTN’s mission to extend connectivity to all by expanding its fibre reach across the markets it serves.

Spanning 260 kilometres, the strategic fibre route stretches from Kampala through Tororo to Malaba, creating a vital digital bridge between Uganda and Kenya. Completed between December 2024 and February 2025, this route ensures robust, high-capacity connectivity from Uganda’s capital to Mombasa’s subsea cable landing stations, leveraging the recent activation of the Mombasa–Malaba/Busia link in Kenya. Together, they form the complete East African digital backbone from Kampala to Mombasa.

During the unveiling in Kampala, Juliet Nsubuga, managing director of Bayobab Uganda, reiterated the company’s commitment to advancing technological development in Uganda and across the region.

“In collaboration with the Uganda Railway, we leveraged the existing rail network to deploy fibre, enhancing connectivity and providing high-speed internet access to communities along the line, connecting key routes between Kampala and Malaba at the Kenyan border - and beyond,” said Nsubuga. “This new route caters to the needs of international and national technology and digital players, as well as telecoms and ISPs that serve communities, demonstrating our commitment to connecting Africa.”

Connectivity route launched

This latest development builds on Bayobab’s broader infrastructure portfolio, adding to MTN’s existing fibre deployments, including the Busia–Jinja–Mabira–Kampala, Malaba–Kamuli–Kayunga–Jinja–Kampala, and Malaba–Tororo–Lira–Karuma–Masindi–Luweero–Kampala corridors.

Given Uganda’s landlocked geography, access to fast and reliable international internet depends heavily on cross-border fibre. The newly inaugurated route offers the most direct connection between Kampala and the Kenya–Uganda border, capitalising on Bayobab Kenya’s infrastructure to reach subsea cable facilities in Mombasa. This introduces a valuable alternative to legacy fibre systems, enhancing route diversity, lowering latency, and boosting network resilience.

Julianne Mweheire, director of industry affairs and content development at the Uganda Communications Commission, welcomed the advancement, noting its alignment with the country’s national objectives.“The new route adds to the existing fibre network, connecting Uganda to the Kenya border and should increase on the already existing redundancy of connectivity access for Uganda as a whole. This launch aligns perfectly with Uganda’s national agenda to digitise services, expand connectivity, and close the gap between urban and rural access.”

Sylvia Mulinge, CEO of MTN Uganda, highlighted the route’s transformative potential in unlocking digital opportunities for all Ugandans. “Imagine a startup in Lira testing its mobile app on cloud platforms without delays. A farmer in Kayunga checking real-time weather patterns to guide planting decisions. A remote school in Kisoro livestreaming science lessons from a national university. This is what a modern connected life looks like, and this is what we are enabling,” Mulinge said.

With over 1 terabyte of capacity, the new Bayobab fibre route connects major data centres in Kampala — including Raxio, Airtel House, and MTN Uganda — facilitating improved interconnection for service providers and hyperscalers. It addresses rising demand for reliable connectivity from telecom operators, ISPs, and global tech firms.

Bayobab continues to invest in high-impact, secure infrastructure projects that support digital transformation and economic growth. This latest cross-border fibre link underscores the company’s commitment to enabling Africa’s digital future by connecting communities, markets, and enterprises across the continent.

This collaboration is set to improve high-speed connectivity for businesses, enterprises, and underserved socio-economic communities

Airtel Africa has announced a new partnership with SpaceX to enhance next-generation satellite connectivity across the African continent

This collaboration is set to improve high-speed connectivity for businesses, enterprises, and underserved socio-economic communities. As part of the agreement, SpaceX has successfully acquired the necessary licenses in several African nations, including Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Niger, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Chad. Licensing processes are also in progress in five additional countries within Airtel Africa's footprint.

Airtel Africa’s CEO, Sunil Taldar, expressed the company's commitment to the partnership, stating, “We remain deeply committed to our vision to enrich the lives of people of Africa. Next-generation satellite connectivity will ensure that every individual, business, and community have reliable and affordable voice and data connectivity even in the most remote and currently underserved parts of Africa.”

SpaceX's vice-president of Starlink business operations, Chad Gibbs, shared, “We’re very excited to work with Airtel Africa to bring the transformative benefits of Starlink to the African people in new and innovative ways. Starlink is available in more than 20 African markets, and this agreement with Airtel highlights how, once licensed, Starlink welcomes the opportunity to join forces with important industry leaders to ensure as many people as possible can benefit from Starlink’s presence. The team at Airtel Africa has played a pivotal role in Africa’s telecom story, so working with them to complement our direct offering across Africa makes great sense for our business.”

This partnership marks a significant step in expanding satellite connectivity across the continent, aiming to bridge the digital divide and provide reliable communication services to underserved areas.

MTN's subscribers are on the rise (Image source: Adobe Stock).

MTN Group saw its total subscriber numbers climb 2.2% in 2024, to 290.9 million, the company revealed in its latest annual report

Active data subscribers also climbed 7.7% to 157.8 million, it added, while data traffic was up by 32.6% to 19,459 petabytes.

In his opening comments to the report, Ralph Mupita, MTN’s president and CEO, called it a “solid commercial performance” amid a challenging global geopolitical landscape.

“In terms of our commercial performance, our results were supported by an increase in the subscriber base to 291 million, a 6.2 million net addition in customers, excluding the markets we exited during the year,” he said.

MTN currently operates in 16 markets, following various international withdrawals last year, including a departure from Afghanistan.

The company also reported encouraging news in terms of its data services, an area in which it sees great potential going forward.

“Our ongoing investments enabled us to capture the ongoing structural demand for our data and fintech services in our markets, with traffic up by 37.3% (excluding JVs) and fintech transaction volumes up 15.3%,” said Mupita.

“Our prospects and investment case are underpinned by the structural demand we see in data and fintech.”

Produced under the theme of ‘Accelerating Africa’s digital future’, MTN also published various other reports covering areas such as ESG and transparency.

“Committed to operating responsibly and ethically, in 2024 MTN remained focused on executing on our strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress, despite the global uncertainties,” said Mupita.

The reports also spell out how the rapid expansion of AI presents new ethical risks, prompting MTN to develop a Responsible AI Policy to uphold digital rights and data privacy.

“As a business, we remain resolute in our commitment to accelerating Africa’s digital future and will maintain the focus on operational excellence and strategic execution to capture the exciting growth opportunities in our footprint.”

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