Orange launched a pan-African high-speed fibre network called Djoliba, with the aim to spur digital ecosystems and meet growing connectivity needs in West Africa.
In a statement, the operator detailed the backbone, based in Dakar, will be based on terrestrial fibre optic network, coupled with undersea cables, “offering secure connectivity” potentially serving up to 330 million inhabitants in the region.
The superfast broadband network will connect eight countries: Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. It will span more than 10,000km of terrestrial fibre optic network coupled with the same length of undersea cables, providing broadband speeds up to 100Gbps and a 99.99% availability rate.
This network covers 16 points of presence (POS)with a grid of nearly 155 technical sites, and connects 300 POS in Europe, America and Asia.
Orange explained networks in West Africa were built inside each country with no cross-border network, Djoliba now simples interconnection processes that came with connecting two countries.
Alioune Ndiaye, Orange Middle East and Africa chief said the project was a ramping up of efforts from the operator to develop Africa’s digital transformation and adds to the €1 billion it invests each year in its African units.
“With Djoliba, local populations will be able to access healthcare or educational services more easily, as well as the applications offered by cloud computing. Development of access to digital technology is a key challenge for Africa and I would like to congratulate our teams in all the countries for their remarkable work that has enabled the Djoliba project to come to fruition.”
Jerome Barre, Orange Wholesale and International Networks chief said Djoliba was a mark for Orange as a leader in deploying terrestrial and undersea cables. With its deployment, “all the operators, companies and institutions in West Africa now benefit from seamless connectivity that is open to the whole world, thanks to a single customer point of contact and unparalleled service availability”, said Barre.
Orange operates in 18 African countries with more than 120 million customers on the continent.
