Liquid Telecom upgrades East Africa’s Fibre Ring

Liquid Telecom, has completed 100G upgrades to key routes on the East Africa Fibre Ring. The upgrade to 100G wavelengths takes advantage of the latest DWDM technology from Ekinops allowing Liquid Telecom to offer the largest lit backhaul capacity in Africa.

The upgrade, according to a press statement offers up to 10 times the speed of previously used 10G waves, enabling Liquid Telecom to provide its enterprise and wholesale customers with additional capacity and increased speeds.

For the first time, Liquid Telecom will provide 100G links to the cities of Kigali in Rwanda, Kampala and Tororo in Uganda as well as Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya, with further 100G upgrades planned for the East Africa Fibre Ring soon.

Meeting the Rising Demand

“By upgrading to 100G, Liquid Telecom is ensuring that its fibre backbone can meet the rising demand for high-bandwidth, video and internet services from businesses and consumers across the region,” said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO, Liquid Telecom. “Through continuous investment, the East Africa Fibre Ring is setting new network standards for the region.”

The East Africa Fibre Ring forms a key part of Liquid Telecom’s pan-African fibre network, which today stretches over 50,000km.

Completed in 2014, it links together Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania, with onwards connectivity to Liquid Telecom’s fibre networks in Burundi and eastern DRC. It also offers direct access to international subsea cables.

The East Africa Fibre Ring remains the first fully redundant regional fibre ring with multiple routing options ensuring that customers are not affected by fibre cuts and network outages. In the event of an incident, internet traffic is automatically and instantly re-routed around the ring, giving consistently high speeds and continuous uptime for Liquid Telecom customers.