At the recently held AfricaTech Festival international trade fair, Orange and its subsidiaries announced the commissioning and commercial launch of Djoliba, the first pan-African backbone.
The infrastructure is based on a terrestrial fibre optic network, coupled with undersea cables, offering secure connectivity abroad from West Africa. This investment aims to support the digital ecosystem and meets the growing needs for connectivity in the region.
Djoliba is the first unified superfast broadband network that provides seamless connectivity, with better availability thanks to network redundancy and security, and excellent quality of service. Operated and maintained from Dakar for greater efficiency, responsiveness and proximity, it has a dedicated supervision centre.
This new backbone covers eight countries namely Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. Natively interconnected with the domestic networks within the countries, this broad coverage will generalise access to connectivity for operators and companies.
Until now, telecommunications networks in West Africa were built inside each country, up to its borders and there was no cross-border network. To provide a service between two capitals, operators had to integrate the offers of several providers and join several different networks which were interconnected at the borders. The new network is a true innovation that simplifies the interconnection processes between countries.
Alioune Ndiaye, CEO, Orange Middle East and Africa, said: “Orange is actively contributing to the development of undersea and terrestrial infrastructure which enable the African continent’s Digital Transformation, by investing 1 billion euros each year. With Djoliba, local populations will be able to access healthcare or educational services more easily, as well as the applications offered by cloud computing. Development of access to digital technology is a key challenge for Africa and I would like to congratulate our teams in all the countries for their remarkable work that has enabled the Djoliba project to come to fruition.”
Jérôme Barré, CEO, Orange Wholesale and International Networks, said: “With Djoliba, Orange is once again confirming its expertise and leadership in the deployment and operation of international terrestrial and undersea networks. Consequently, all the operators, companies and institutions in West Africa now benefit from seamless connectivity that is open to the whole world, thanks to a single customer point of contact and unparalleled service availability. Djoliba is the fruit of a group effort and thanks to a fully mobilised cross-functional team, we have been able to meet this sizeable challenge. This human adventure illustrates the Orange Group’s strength, both due to its local presence through its subsidiaries and its capacity to build shared international assets.”
Djoliba is the first network that offers complete security in West Africa with more than 10,000 km of terrestrial fibre optic network, coupled with 10,000 km of undersea cables, superfast broadband provision (up to 100 Gbit/s) and a 99.99% availability rate. This network covers 16 points of presence with a grid of nearly 155 technical sites and connects 300 points of presence in Europe, America and Asia.
Orange is currently present in 18 African countries, and has more than 120 million customers.
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