Airtel Africa, through its wholesale fibre subsidiary Telesonic, has announced a strategic partnership with Nokia to deploy a transformative, high-capacity terrestrial fibre optic network across East and Central Africa. The initiative, revealed at the recent 28th AfricaCom event in Cape Town, aims to address the continent's growing digital consumption by significantly enhancing cross-border connectivity.
The project is designed to create a robust digital backbone that interconnects multiple countries and links major submarine cables, such as the 2Africa system, to the terrestrial infrastructure inland. This will support the rapid growth in Africa's mobile-first user base, who increasingly rely on the internet for essential services like education, healthcare, and financial access.
The Technology Powering the NetworkThe new infrastructure, which will be implemented by Telesonic, will leverage Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch PSS platform and its high-speed coherent Photonic Service Engine PSE technology. This advanced Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing DWDM network will be capable of handling an ultra-high capacity of up to 38 Terabits per second Tbps, facilitating fast, secure, and large-scale data transfers necessary for cloud services and webscale traffic.
