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How terrestrial fibre connectivity is taking off on the back of subsea cable growth and new funding

The rise in the number of undersea cable projects in sub-Saharan Africa over the past few years is providing a real boost for the continent’s many terrestrial fibre projects. In December 2015, Liquid Sea, an offshore subsidiary of Liquid Telecom, announced that it is to lay new subsea cable off Africa's eastern coastline. The project will run some 10,000km from South Africa to the Middle East. It is designed to enable a reliable and affordable international connectivity service to both coastal and landlocked countries in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa.

Understanding the growth trend
Liquid Telecom already has a substantial communications technology presence in Africa and it hosts the continent's largest single contiguous network. Communications Africa/Afrique interviewed Liquid Telecom, as well as a number of companies active in the sector, to assess their understanding of the growth trend. Liquid Telecom expects that Africa’s terrestrial fibre sector is set to undergo record breaking growth in 2016. A company spokesperson said, “In addition to the sea cable, Liquid Telecom is laying 100km of new fibre every week.”

Leading figures at MainOne - the leading provider of innovative telecom services and network solutions in West Africa – concurred. Funke Opeke, chief executive officer of MainOne, and MainOne's marketing operations supervisor Temitope Osunrinde point to a number of new developments in the sub-region, which combined, make it second only to South Africa. The company affirmed, “We see more engaging and relevant use of technology by Africans. And we haven’t yet scratched the surface."

The rest of the article can be read on page 18 of the latest issue of Communications Africa:http://www.communicationsafrica.com/magazine/current-issue

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