KENYA – Telkom, an integrated communications provider in Kenya has started setting up a fibre loop in Mombasa to address the growing need for faster internet data among businesses and customers.
The laying of the new metro loop will connect Mombasa, linking it to the company’s over 10,000km network of the national backbone and the 1,000km redundancy backbone between Mombasa and Tororo, said the company in a statement.
The launch follows the completion of a fibre metro loop for the city of Nairobi and its environs.
According to Telkom CEO Mugo Kibati, the firm intends to set up similar fibre loops in all large towns within the country to meet the growing demand for broadband by businesses, homes and individuals.
The new capacity will enhance customer experience as well as boost reseller capacity to other telcos and internet service providers across East Africa.
“This demonstrates our commitment to connect the people that keep Kenya on the move with the provision of fast, reliable internet.
These metro loops will facilitate access to the internet, which plays an important role in the lives of individuals and businesses. It further serves to entrench our position as Kenya’s preferred data network,” said Mr. Kibati.
Telkom has a resilient 400G fibre capacity on its entire backbone that runs from Mombasa through Malaba to Tororo.
The Nairobi carrier metro loop with a design capacity of 10TB is the biggest ethernet carrier, making it possible to carry heavy traffic and relay data across the region seamlessly for a better experience to internet users.
The investment is part of Telkom’s Ksh1 billion (US$10 million) plan to expand and optimize its network across the country.
The network expansion plan includes 3G and 4G mobile connectivity, as well as its Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) Network for enterprise and corporate customers.
The company in partnership with Ministry of ICT and its “DARE 1” (Djibouti African Regional Express) are set to implement a 4,000km, 36TB Terabyte fibre cable interconnecting Kenya to Djibouti.
“For broadband revolution to be a reality, the metropolitan bottleneck must be broken with architectural transformations that will enable us to convert bandwidth demand into opportunities.
As more and more applications are emerging, we must have matching or even better bandwidth in place,” added Mugo.
