Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, has announced it has acquired a fibre pair on the Equiano subsea cable, allowing Liquid to transport traffic up to 12 Terabits, bringing an increase in international connectivity in Western and Southern Africa.
With older sub-sea cables almost at the end of their lifespan, Liquid through the Equiano cable system will address the growing need for Internet capacity supporting cloud services in both coastal and landlocked countries on the continent.
The new Equiano subsea cable will link Africa to Europe via the West Coast of Africa when it is ready for service later in 2022, providing Terabit/s of capacity to meet the growing and varied business needs of organisations across Europe, Western and Southern Africa. Through its extensive fibre backbone and satellite services, Liquid can offer reliable telecommunications and cloud services to over 1.3 billion people across thousands of towns and cities in Africa.
“In the last few years, we have witnessed a steady increase in adoption of digital technologies. This wouldn’t have been possible without our investments in high-speed connectivity in coastal as well as landlocked African countries.” says David Eurin, CEO Liquid Dataport. “The continent needs companies like Liquid who not only land Terabit/s of capacity with subsea cables but also distribute that capacity inland, enabling these countries to see the same benefits as those where the cable lands.”
The Equiano subsea cable has landings planned in Sesimbra (Portugal), Lomé (Togo), Lagos (Nigeria), Swakopmund (Namibia), Rupert’s Bay (Saint Helena) and Melkbosstrand (South Africa), with more landing stations planned in the future. The move extends Liquid’s One Africa Digital Network’s reach into Africa, providing connectivity to large data centres on the continent while granting access to major commercial hubs. Liquid plans to interconnect the Equiano landing stations to its East-West network across Africa, creating a new global IP route between Asia, Africa and the USA.
Liquid’s investment in Equiano will help provide seamless connectivity for its clients across Africa, complementing its own existing national and metro fibre networks and offering increased resilience thanks to its connection to other subsea and satellite networks. Looking further, the deployment will bring the benefit of access to large capacities and low costs to cross-connect from subsea to terrestrial backhaul, which should lead to lower prices for both consumers and businesses.
This initiative aligns acutely with Liquid’s twin goals of providing the best services, connectivity, and prices to its clients while making online access to as many people on the African continent as possible.