Bridging connectivity gaps via wholesale offering

Wholesale international capacity demands continue to grow, from tens of Megabits per second (Mbps) per circuit to multi-100 Gigabits per second (Gbps) – on multiple routes for resilience. This is driven by African consumers’ needs to reach cloud-based content and the global cloud community migrating its content into Africa to optimise end-user experience.

WIOCC is bridging the connectivity gaps to address consumer needs by taking a leading role in advancing the digitisation of Africa, having invested in a full fibre pair on both Africa’s new >140+Tbps international cable systems; Equiano, scheduled to be operational end – March, early- April 2023 and 2Africa which will go live by end-2023/4 – as well as being a landing partner for both cable systems.

WIOCC’s commitment to delivering a market-leading portfolio of wholesale services based on strategic investment in subsea and terrestrial digital infrastructure has been further demonstrated with its fibre-pair investment in Google’s Equiano cable system, which it landed in Lagos, Nigeria early last year and extended to Cape Town, South Africa late last year, and in the 2Africa cable system, which it landed in South Africa in early 2023. These high-capacity, open-access cable systems will directly impact connectivity throughout the continent, resulting in faster internet speeds, reduced internet prices and improved user experience.

The new cable systems also improve reliability through new routes and new landings. Significantly, both cable systems are based on open-access principles, landing in open-access data centres to ensure fair competition in extending connectivity into Africa. As such, they are a critical element in WIOCC Group’s deployment of converged open digital infrastructure for Africa.

Equiano

The 144Tbps, 12,000+km Equiano cable runs from Portugal along Africa’s western seaboard to South Africa. WIOCC is a fibre pair owner in the system and landed the cable directly into WIOCC Group company Open Access Data Centre’s (OADC) flagship carrier-neutral data centre (DC) in Lagos, Nigeria, and extended it into its new OADC Rondebosch facility in Cape Town.

2Africa

The 45,000+km 2Africa cable will be the longest subsea cable system in the world. It has a design capacity of 180Tbps and will interconnect 33 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. WIOCC is a fibre pair owner and landed the cable directly into OADC’s Durban DC in February 2023.