Nairobi, March 21st 2019…Telkom has begun setting up a fibre loop for the city of Mombasa to meet growing demand for faster data by its business and individual customers.
The laying of the new metro loop will connect Mombasa, linking it to Telkom’s over 10,000-kilometer of the national backbone and the 1,000KM redundancy backbone between Mombasa and Tororo. This initiative is aimed at improving connectivity and enhance quality of service to customers, following the recent completion of a fibre metro loop for the city of Nairobi and its environs.
Telkom CEO Mugo Kibati said that the firm intends to set up similar fibre loops in all large towns within the country to meet the growing demand for broadband by businesses, homes and individuals.
“This demonstrates our commitment to connect the people that keep Kenya on the move with the provision of fast, reliable internet. These metro loops will facilitate access to the internet, which plays an important role in the lives of individuals and businesses. It further serves to entrench our position as Kenya’s preferred data network,” Mr. Kibati added.
Telkom has a resilient 400G fibre capacity on its entire backbone that runs from Mombasa through Malaba to Tororo. The Nairobi carrier metro loop with a design capacity of 10TB is the biggest ethernet carrier, making it possible to carry heavy traffic and relay data across the region seamlessly for a better experience to internet users.
Mr. Kibati said that the capacity will not only enhance customer data experience, but also boost reseller capacity to other telcos and internet service providers across East Africa who purchase from Telkom.
The set-up of metro loops is part of Telkom’s KSh1 Billion plan to expand and optimize Telkom’s network across the country. The network expansion plan includes 3G and 4G mobile connectivity, as well as its Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTB) Network for enterprise and corporate customers.
Early this year, The Ministry of ICT, Telkom Kenya and its “DARE 1” (Djibouti African Regional Express) partners concluded the first raft of commercial negotiations in Djibouti, ahead of the implementation of a 4,000km, 36TB Terabyte fibre cable interconnecting Kenya to Djibouti. The largest ever capacity in the country and East Africa region.
“For broadband revolution to be a reality, the metropolitan bottleneck must be broken with architectural transformations that will enable us convert bandwidth demand into opportunities. As more and more applications are emerging, we must have matching or even better bandwidth in place” Concluded Mugo .
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About Telkom
Telkom connects the people that keep Kenya on the move. It does this by providing integrated telecommunications solutions to individuals, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), Government and large corporates in Kenya, drawing from a diverse solutions suite that includes voice, data, mobile money as well as network services. Powered by its vast fibre optic infrastructure, it is also a major provider of wholesale, carrier-to-carrier traffic within the country and the region. Telkom is building on a strong, consumer-centric ethos that is committed to providing innovative, accessible and refreshingly simple communications solutions that suit customers’ everyday communication needs.
Established as a telecommunications operator in April 1999, Telkom is 60 per cent owned by Helios Investment Partners, with the remaining stake held by Kenyans through the Government of Kenya.
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