The new 120km fibre link from Nairobi to Namanga on the border of Kenya and Tanzania is one of a number of improvements that will increase capacity and reduce latency for KDN’s customers including ISPs, carriers, homes, government organisations and businesses of all sizes.

KDN was recently acquired by Liquid Telecom which has built Africa’s largest fibre network spanning over 13,000km from the north of Uganda to Cape Town on a single thread.  This new section of the network carries the capacity of multiple STM 64s and will be operational and available to KDN and Liquid Telecom customers in August this year.

Last month Liquid Telecom commissioned a gigabit circuit between Kenya and South Africa from SEACOM and increased the advertisements of many East African IP address prefixes at the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX).

The key benefit of these investments and the integration of the KDN and Liquid Telecom fibre networks is that traffic between South Africa and East Africa no longer needs to be routed via Europe.  As a result, KDN and Liquid provide the lowest latency rates on the continent (down from over 400 ms to nearer 50ms) by keeping African traffic in Africa.

KDN is also using this additional capacity to provide a fibre route between Dar es Salam and Mombasa to ensure that terrestrial connectivity can be maintained in the event of any future damage to the submarine cables serving East Africa.

Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom, said
“We believe that technology should be for everyone and completion of the Namanga fibre will be another major milestone in consolidating Liquid’s fibre coverage as the widest in Africa and confirming our position as the leading pan African communications connectivity provider.”

Rudnick went on to say, “With the completion of the KDN’s Namanga fibre we will provide even more secure and reliable solutions to businesses in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. This fibre will improve business opportunities providing more capacity, more routes and higher speeds to fixed and mobile operators, as well as Africa’s leading companies.”

Since its acquisition of Kenya Data Networks; Rwandan ISP Stream and InfoCom, an ISP in Uganda, Liquid Telecom has prioritised the integration of these networks with its own existing fibre network to create one seamless fully redundant IP network.

Liquid Telecom has also commissioned a gigabit circuit between Kenya and South Africa from SEACOM and advertisements of many East African IP address prefixes at the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) went live last week.  The key benefit of this is that traffic between South Africa and East Africa, including Kenya, will no longer need to be routed via Europe.

As a result, traffic on Liquid Telecom’s networks in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda is already much faster with the lowest latency rates on the continent (down from over 400 ms to nearer 50ms).  Customers benefiting include ISPs, carriers and businesses of all sizes across Eastern and Southern Africa.

Specialist Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) hosted in South Africa are also using the new circuit for serving cached files and websites so that people living and working in East Africa will have faster connectivity to the world’s most important and popular internet sites.

During the recent bandwidth crisis, caused by multiple cable cuts north of Egypt, Liquid Telecom used a number of different routes to keep customers connected including

• Diverting traffic from East Africa to Johannesburg via SEACOM and onwards to Europe using multiple redundant paths on WACS and SAT3 up the West coast of Africa.
• Using a further redundant path eastwards from Nairobi to Singapore using the TEAMS cable.
• Emergency restoration of circuits between Egypt and France provided by SEACOM and WIOCC.

Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom, said: “The recent problems in East Africa once again highlight Africa’s need for a large-scale, high-speed, fully redundant, cross-border network.  That’s why Liquid Telecom is investing in its own infrastructure.  We know that by building and managing our own fibre infrastructure, we’re agile enough to solve our customers’ problems and improve standards and quality, even in the toughest conditions”.

*In November 2012 Liquid was named Best African Wholesale Carrier at the annual telecoms industry awards of Capacity magazine.

The Forum will discuss the key interconnection, peering, and traffic exchange opportunities and challenges in Africa and provides participants with global and regional insights for maximising opportunities that will help grow Internet infrastructure and services in Africa.

African regulatory and policy issues will no doubt be robustly debated by a wide variety of influencers including ISPs, IXP operators, Policymakers and Regulators, African and International Content Providers, University and Government Internet Infrastructure Managers, Liquid Telecom. . . and more!

More details here

Nic Rudnick will be taking part in the conference session on Sub-Sarahan Africa which will take place on Tuesday 26 February from 1600-1730 in Hall 4, Auditorium 5.

Moderated by Bradley Shaw, editor of Africa Telcoms magazines, other speakers include:

• Sifiso Dabengwa, Group President & CEO, MTN Group
• Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Joint MD, Bharti Airtel
• Essa Al-Haddad, Chief Regional Officer – Africa and CCO, Etisalat Group
• Her Excellency Omobola Johnson, Minister of Communication Technology, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, Nigeria
• Lars Linden, Head of Ericsson, Region Sub-Saharan Africa, Ericsson
• George Ferreira, COO, Samsung Africa

Session Description

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions globally for mobile penetration, usage and revenues. While the world has been rocked by economic crises, the region’s mobile ecosystem has seen continued subscription growth and now accounts for over 454m connections, according to Wireless Intelligence, making it one of the world’s largest pools of mobile subscribers. It has taken a significant role in applying mobile to verticals such as education, healthcare and finance, buoyed by the innovation of home-grown entrepreneurs.

Nevertheless, there are significant challenges for Sub-Saharan Africa as a region, such as maintaining operator profitability and revenues as mobile penetration spreads to less affluent customers; and ensuring regulation keeps pace with the potential of the region. The solutions it finds have the potential to teach the mobile industry across the rest of the planet.

Session Title: Regional Focus: Sub-Saharan Africa

The deal will create Africa’s largest single fibre network spanning Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho and South Africa. This network will provide reliable, high-speed, cost-effective connectivity to carriers, ISPs, homes, financial institutions and businesses of all sizes.

Altech becomes a minority shareholder in The Liquid Telecom Group with an initial 8.6% equity stake with shareholder voting rights of 10%.  Altech will also subscribe US$16.5 million in cash.

Ownership of the following Altech properties will pass to Liquid Telecom pending regulatory approval:

• its 61% stake in Kenya Data Networks, a data carrier and infrastructure provider in Kenya
• Africa Data Networks, an operator in the DRC
• Swift Global, a provider of voice, data and mobility solutions to the Consumer, Business, Enterprise and Government sectors in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda,
• Stream, a service provider in Rwanda  and
• InfoCom, an ISP in Uganda.

Liquid Telecom has built the largest fibre network in Southern Africa. Liquid’s network is the first to cross country borders and covers some of the most challenging parts of the world where no fixed network has existed before.  It operates as a wholesale carrier in all six countries as well as an operator in Zambia and Zimbabwe.  In November last year Liquid was named Best African Wholesale Carrier at the annual awards of Capacity magazine.

Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom, said: “Liquid has been building and investing in a high-quality pan-African fibre network for many years and this deal will accelerate our progress by enlarging our network footprint and complementing our existing product portfolio. We are a strong and ambitious company and have a long-term investment plan for all the companies we are acquiring.

Like us, KDN has built the largest fibre network in East Africa and we believe that it is a company with huge potential. I strongly believe that its people, its network and its customer base will all add value and opportunity to our current operations.”

Altech Group CEO, Craig Venter, said: “The Liquid transaction opens a positive new chapter for Altech in partnership with a group with proven expertise in its sector.”

The deal has to be approved by various regulatory authorities and whist these approvals are pending, neither Altech nor Liquid will be able to comment further on the deal.

Tom joins from African wholesale carrier Gateway Communications where he has been responsible for its marketing and communications strategy since 2005. During this time he managed the integration of the Link Africa and GS Telecom brands into Gateway and was constructive in rebranding its enterprise assets into Vodacom Business Africa.

Tom has worked closely with the international teams at Vodacom and Vodafone, as well as more recently with PCCW Global which acquired Gateway in 2012. Prior to this he worked for Energis, Cable & Wireless and Opal Telecom in a variety of product, business development and marketing roles.

Nic Rudnick, CEO of The Liquid Telecom Group, said: “We are an ambitious company which is growing fast. Tom understands our industry and his experience in African telecoms and his marketing expertise will be vital in guiding us through our expansion plans. I am truly delighted to have him on-board”.

Tom adds: “Liquid is a fantastic company with an exciting future. It’s already established a number of excellent businesses and I look forward to contributing to its future successes”.

According to Capacity magazine, the awards focus on the contribution of individuals, companies and technology partners that have excelled in the use, development and deployment of carrier services in the past 12 months. The awards are independently judged by a panel of telecoms analysts, industry experts and the senior editorial team of Capacity magazine.

Alex Hawkes, editor of Capacity magazine, said:  “This award pays tribute to the vital contribution Liquid Telecom has made to improving terrestrial backhaul in Africa during 2012. The judging panel were highly impressed with the company’s efforts to extend its fibre network across the continent, as well as its commitment to bringing connectivity to the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries in the future. I would like to congratulate Liquid Telecom for winning the Capacity award for Best African wholesale carrier.”

Pictured below is Ramzi Shalak Network Operations Manager at Liquid Telecom who picked up the award.

AfricaCom, Cape Town, 13 November 2012 – Liquid Telecom today announced that it has extended its fibre network to the Democratic Republic of Congo connecting Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the DRC. This provides Lubumbashi with its first international fibre link and will increase capacity and availability as well as reduce the country’s dependence on satellite.

The West Africa Cable System (WACS) is unlikely to arrive in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC, until at least March 2013 and so Liquid Telecom’s fibre network also provides the DRC with its first connection to WACS via Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

One of the DRC’s four mobile operators is already using Liquid’s fibre network to backhaul international traffic from Lubumbashi eliminating the satellite double-hops in its network.

Liquid Telecom has built the largest fibre network in Southern Africa providing backhaul between most urban areas and last mile connectivity in the main cities of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and South Africa. Liquid’s network is the first to cross country borders and covers some of the most challenging parts of the world where no fixed network has existed before.  It operates as a wholesale carrier in all five countries as well as an operator in Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Liquid’s network provides connectivity onto the four main subsea fibre systems of Africa; WACS, EASSY, Seacom and SAT3.

Nic Rudnick, CEO of Liquid Telecom, said:  “Our expansion into DRC is a major milestone both for us and the people of the DRC.  Our fibre network is already the most extensive in Southern Africa.  It is increasing the prosperity of ordinary Africans and the businesses which serve and employ them”.

Liquid Telecom will be investing heavily in expanding into new countries to ensure that for the first time all countries and operators in Central and Southern Africa are directly connected.

Nic will be speaking at AfricaCom on Wednesday 14 November at 1440 in the Connecting Africa stream on “Overcoming challenges and maximising efficiency in Infrastructure Projects to improve mobile networks”.

Liquid Telecom has been shortlisted in the annual AfricaCom awards in the Best Network Improvement category for its urban fibre network in Zimbabwe which has seen the Zimbabwe ICT Sector being ranked the second most dynamic globally by the ITU.

About The Democratic Republic of Congo.

The BuddeComm analyst company provides the following estimated market penetration rates in the DRC’s telecoms sector for the end of 2012; Mobile penetration rate 25%, fixed line penetration 0.1% and Internet 1.5%. The population of the DRC is estimated at 67 million.

The AfricaCom Awards celebrate and reward excellence in the African Telcoms, Media and ICT Market.  Now in its 5th year, the Awards ceremony is the high-point of the AfricaCom conference and exhibition. www.africacomawards.com

Shortlisted alongside Liquid Telecom in the Best Network Improvement category are:

• Airtel Nigeria – Airtel Nigeria
• Helios Towers Africa – Shared Telecoms Infrastructure L
• Orange Group – Orange Cote d’Ivoire
• Orange Group – Internet for All
• ZTE – Network & Services

The winners will be announced at a gala dinner in Cape Town on 14th November at the Waterfront LookOut, Granger Bay, Cape Town.

Our CEO, Nic Rudnick, will be speaking at 2:40pm on Wednesday 14th November on how to overcome the challenges and maximize the effiiciency in infrastructure projects to Improve Mobile Networks.

We look forward to meeting with you at AfricaCom, visit us on stand number C8 to speak with one of the Liquid team.