CONVERGED OPEN DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Accelerating the Digitisation of Africa

BY CHRIS WOOD

Deployment of the new, high-capacity Equiano and 2Africa subsea cable systems is facilitating transformation of Africa’s digital landscape; not just because of the significant additional capacity, connectivity and resilience they are bringing, but also because they are being landed into open access data centres.

This innovative integration of high-capacity subsea infrastructure with open access digital interconnection points is helping to establish and foster a convergence towards open digital infrastructure, which is driving transformational change on the continent. It enables a level playing field for all operators to easily and cost-effectively access reliable, scalable international capacity at open digital hubs, driving the development of vibrant digital ecosystems.

Establishing Converged Open Digital Infrastructure Across Africa

With this new subsea cable capacity now coming on stream to improve delivery of digital content, services and technologies, it is imperative that a reliable, scalable, open-access digital backbone with sufficient scale, reach and resilience is available to underpin the realisation of these opportunities throughout Africa.

As a pioneer of developing connectivity into, out of and around the continent, WIOCC Group is taking on the challenge to transform digital Africa and accelerate the continent’s digitisation. It has a comprehensive programme in place to deploy converged, open digital infrastructure – a mesh of open access connectivity hubs interlinked with open access networks – throughout the continent, supporting better opportunities, better businesses and a better world for all Africans.

WIOCC has landed the Equiano and 2Africa cables into open access, carrier-neutral, data centres operated by WIOCC Group company Open Access Data Centres (OADC), helping in ensuring the long-term availability of high-capacity, open access international connectivity to Africa’s wholesale market.

Content providers, cloud operators, fixed-line and mobile telcos, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and major enterprises all make use of such connectivity to further accelerate the digital transformation of the continent.

NEW SUBSEA CABLES TRANSFORM AFRICA’S DIGITAL LANDSCAPE

After a 10-year hiatus, when no new subsea cable systems were deployed between Africa and the rest of the world, the DARE1 and METISS regional cable systems were deployed in 2021.

However, Africa’s international subsea capacity inventory will increase dramatically with the new >140Tbps Equiano and 2Africa cable systems going live this year and next. These new cables will completely transform Africa’s digital landscape, bringing much-needed additional capacity, connectivity and resilience that will enable service providers in

Africa to deliver the benefits of digital technology to more businesses and individuals across the continent.

At 12,000km long and with a design capacity of 144Tbps, approximately 20 times larger than the last cable system landed on Africa’s western seaboard, the Equiano cable system is now in service delivering connectivity between South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, Togo and Europe.

With a design capacity of up to 180Tbps, the 45,000km 2Africa cable is one of the world’s largest subsea cable systems and is expected to come online by the end of 2023 (2Africa East) and by the end of 2024 (2Africa West). When complete, it will interconnect Europe, Africa, the Arabian Gulf, India, Pakistan and Asia, with 27 landings in 19 African countries.

Both cables have been designed and deployed over routes that are diverse to existing subsea systems, with multiple new landing points along Africa’s coastline, offering capacity purchasers the opportunity to build greater resilience into their networks and service offerings to customers.

New Cable Systems Catalyse Further Terrestrial Infrastructure Growth

The arrival of this transformational new subsea capacity, combined with the rollout of advanced 4G/5G mobile technologies, the increased adoption of remote working practices and the growing migration of services and applications into the cloud, has undoubtedly expedited investment in terrestrial infrastructure across Africa.

SUGGESTED TERRESTRIAL FIBRE BOX-OUT

According to the latest data from telecom market specialist Hamilton Research, Africa’s total inventory of operational terrestrial fibre-optic network increased to 1,260,451km in March 2023, an increase of 81,154km in the last year – including 36,128-km of metro and access fibre, and 40,208-km of national long haul and cross-border fibre. In addition, a further 119,062km of fibre-optic network was under con- struction, 125,541km planned and 69,352km proposed. The new cross-border fibre routes include: between Congo and Cameroon; between Central African Republic, Cameroon and Congo; from South Africa to Zambia via Bulawayo in Zimbabwe; and between Mombasa and Nairobi in Kenya to Uganda.

Approximately 20% of the total fibre inventory is within city boundaries, as metropolitan fibre rings – which distribute bandwidth from fibre-optic nodes to districts and suburbs around major cities – and fibre-to-the-home / fibre-to-the-building (FTTH/FTTB) networks, which provide the last-mile access, delivering fibre bandwidth right to the doorstep.

Hyperscale Infrastructure Accessible Across Africa

As an operator of open access national and metro fibre networks in many African countries, WIOCC plays a leading role in the wholesale connectivity market, supporting local operators in their delivery of the reliable, high-speed connectivity demanded by end-users.

For example, in South Africa WIOCC operates a hyperscale national backbone connecting all key business hubs, which is supplemented with metro network coverage across all major cities. This enables WIOCC’s wholesale clients to extend their services to client sites anywhere on its network.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, it is deploying a 4,500+km national fibre network with 84 Points of Presence (PoPs) and extend- ing its metropolitan fibre network across Lagos and throughout Lagos State.

WIOCC also offers clients multiple-path, redundant routes throughout coastal countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique, and from the coast into landlocked countries including Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The result of this huge infrastructure investment is that connectivity and solutions providers are able to develop offerings based on resilient and fully scalable end-to-end digital connectivity throughout Africa, supporting the launch and uptake of digital technologies and content way beyond the cables’ coastal landing stations.

Huge Commercial Opportunities In Digital Africa

The digitisation of Africa is already well underway and the continent’s internet economy is now firmly established.

However, 57%1 of the world’s second most populous continent (estimated 1.46 billion2 population) still do not access the internet - compared to 31.4% for the rest of the world. Meanwhile, 70% of sub-Saharan Africans are under the age of 303 and so are likely to become frequent, high-capacity users of digital technologies when they are able to access international connectivity.

Demand for capacity is rising exponentially across the board, with businesses increasingly migrating to cloudbased solutions, outsourcing key functions to third parties and continuing to support large numbers of home workers.

At an individual level, the use of internet-based social networking applications, content sharing, entertainment streaming, online gaming, etc., is growing rapidly – facilitated by improved access to reliable, more affordable, highspeed bandwidth; cheaper handsets; more African content and an enhanced end-user experience - as more and more content is migrated to Africa.

1 Internet World Stats, 2021

2 Macrrotrends 2023

3 Young People’s Potential, the Key to Africa’s Sustainable Development, United Nations, 2021,

Driving Transformational Change

While the arrival of the Equiano and 2Africa subsea cable systems certainly provided an essential building block for Africa’s digital transformation, the integration of this new subsea infrastructure with open access digital interconnection points is helping businesses and individuals within Africa to participate more fully in this digital revolution.

It is the establishment of converged open digital infrastructure that is really driving transformational change in Africa. STF

WIOCC Group CEO CHRIS WOOD has led the company since its formation in 2008, driving the implementation of converged open access digital infrastructure across Africa and enabling content providers, cloud operators, fixed-line and mobile telcos, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and major enterprises to accelerate the digital transformation of this rapidly developing continent.

Chris has grown the company into Africa’s digital backbone, the organisation responsible for the continent’s first, truly hyperscale network infrastructure, and one of the largest providers of connectivity to the ‘Big 5’ capacity users in Africa.

Chris has contributed significantly to Africa’s digitisation imperative, ensuring the ability of WIOCC Group clients to deploy scalable, value-added services through extensive infrastructure investment and improvement:

His vision is driving WIOCC’s strategic investments in major submarine cable systems serving Africa; deployment of a hyperscale terrestrial fibre infrastructure interconnecting key markets and international subsea cables; metropolitan network rollout; and the launch of a transformational data centre operator, promising a pan-African network of open-access, carrier-neutral data centres enabling interconnected, integrated ecosystems.