African digital connectivity provider WIOCC is set to become the first operator to activate a fiber pair on the Equiano submarine cable system according to the company’s optical communications technology partner, Ciena (NYSE: CIEN). The submarine network capacity will help WIOCC meet needs for connectivity in South Africa, Nigeria, and neighboring countries.
Google announced plans for the Equino submarine cable network in 2019 (see “Google plans Equiano submarine cable link from Portugal to South Africa”). WIOCC also is an investor in the undersea system, which runs 15,000 km from Portugal to South Africa along the African west coast. The submarine network offers 12 fiber pairs and a total capacity of 144 Tbps. WIOCC owns the fiber pair, which it terminates with submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) from Ciena that is part of Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme portfolio. The implementation leverages the 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS) with WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics and Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller. WIOCC also has contracted with Ciena Services for turnkey planning, design, and deployment services. Ciena says the fiber pair will support spectrum sharing.
“For WIOCC, this initiative represents a significant investment in establishing and expanding Africa’s converged open access digital infrastructure, linking submarine fiber pair ownership with hyperscale terrestrial buildout and cloud expansion in key markets across sub-Saharan Africa, expediting digital transformation throughout the region,” said Chris Wood, WIOCC Group CEO.
“This collaboration offers us the best lead times, a great commercial proposition and high-quality, accessible technical support – all vital as we expand our ability to support the cloud and wholesale community in Africa,” Wood added in the context of working with Ciena. “Not only has this allowed us to pre-install our SLTE in Open Access Data Centre (OADC) facilities in Lagos, Nigeria, and Rondebosch, South Africa – meaning we’ll be able to light up our capacity as soon as the Equiano system goes live – but it’s also optimized budget utilization, enabling us to invest further in other parts of our network.”
Equiano will be ready for service next month, according to press reports.
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