Ethio telecom, Djibouti Telecom and Sudatel Group have signed a landmark tripartite strategic agreement under the Horizon Fiber Initiative, marking a major milestone in regional digital integration through the deployment of a high-capacity, cross-border multi-terabit optical fibre infrastructure.
The agreement establishes a resilient terrestrial fibre corridor connecting international submarine cable landing stations in Djibouti, traversing Ethiopia and extending to Sudan’s landing stations. This route creates a scalable, secure and diversified regional connectivity pathway linking East Africa to global digital networks.
Designed to enhance international bandwidth capacity and strengthen network resilience and redundancy, the Horizon Fiber Initiative supports growing demand for data, cloud services, hyperscale connectivity and cross-border data flows driven by Africa’s accelerating digital economy.
For Ethio telecom, the initiative supports its Next Horizon: Digital & Beyond 2028 strategy, reinforcing its ambition to evolve into a regional digital connectivity leader. Horizon Fiber strengthens Ethiopia’s position as a strategic digital transit hub while underpinning advanced services including cloud, data centres and enterprise solutions.
Through collaboration, the three operators will leverage complementary infrastructure and expertise to deliver multi-terabit fibre capacity, low-latency international connectivity, diversified cross-border routes and improved service reliability for operators, enterprises and content providers.
The CEOs of the partnering organisations highlighted the initiative as a reflection of regional cooperation and innovation-led partnerships, supporting economic growth and digital inclusion. Building on a Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2024, the Horizon Fiber Initiative represents a tangible outcome of shared ambition and positions the region as a trusted gateway in the global digital economy.
