The first direct fibre connection between Zimbabwe and the West African Cable System (WACS) has been officially launched by Liquid Telecom, in a move expected to improve broadband services.
The company have also rolled out Harare’s first fibre optic network.
The link has been commissioned to the WACS landing station near Cape Town providing Zimbabwe with an alternative route for international broadband traffic.
According to Wellington Makamumre, Liquid’s Managing Director, the telecom has a blueprint of deploying urban fibre in other countries.
“Most operators have opted to wait for us to construct the network and then use it for their backhaul purposes,” he said.
Reports have indicated that the telecom has the largest fibre network in Southern Africa, providing backhaul between urban areas and last mile connectivity in the main cities of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa.
Through the launch of the two initiatives, it has managed to connect Zimbabwe to the high-capacity WACS, the submarine cable that extends from South Africa to London along Africa’s west coast.
As it operates as a wholesale carrier in all five countries as well as an operator in Zambia and Zimbabwe, its network will be the first to cross country borders, covering undeveloped and underdeveloped parts of the continent.
Currently, Liquid is an IAP as well as an ISP in Zimbabwe and as such provides services for residential, SMEs and large enterprise customers as well as other providers in Zimbabwe.
“In Zimbabwe no other Integrated Access Point (IAP) provider has managed to achieve what Liquid Telecom has achieved in such a short space of time,” Makamumre said.
Alleviating congestion on the back haul network and enabling high speed 3G data are some of the challenges expected to be resolved with the provision of connectivity by the telecom.
By building the largest fibre network in Zimbabwe providing broadband voice and data in all major cities and towns, liquid is expected to invest heavily in expanding into new countries, ensuring countries and operators in Central and Southern Africa are directly connected.
