Seacom has launched a new high-capacity terrestrial network route between Nairobi and Kampala, reinforcing one of East Africa’s most critical digital corridors.
The new route connects key infrastructure hubs in Nairobi, Kisumu and Kampala, creating a more resilient and scalable pathway for traffic moving inland from subsea cable landing stations in Mombasa. It effectively upgrades a long-established corridor into a modern, high-capacity backbone designed to support growing demand for data across East Africa.
“We’re strengthening a route that already plays a central role in regional connectivity,” says David Kariuki, chief technology officer at Seacom. “We are ensuring that this segment is served by a high-capacity, carrier-grade network that can support the scale and performance today’s digital economy requires.”
Nairobi–Kampala corridor underpins a wide range of industries, from telecommunications and financial services to cloud platforms and digital commerce. As these sectors expand, demand for consistent, low-latency connectivity continues to rise.
The new route is designed to meet that demand by improving access to international bandwidth and enabling faster, more reliable data movement between markets.
“The biggest impact will be felt across the broader internet economy,” Kariuki says. “From service providers and banks to cloud operators and e-commerce platforms, organisations depend on stable connectivity to operate and grow. This investment directly improves their ability to deliver services.”
Beyond Kenya and Uganda, the route also strengthens regional integration. It provides a more efficient pathway into neighbouring markets such as Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, supporting cross-border digital services and regional trade.
Greater resilience and service availability
Reliability has been a key focus in the design of the new route, particularly given historical challenges along this corridor.
Seacom has implemented Automated Switched Optical Network (ASON), allowing traffic to be rerouted automatically in under 50 milliseconds if a fault occurs. This ensures continuity of service even in the event of multiple network disruptions.
“Service availability has been a major consideration,” Kariuki explains. “By managing and controlling more of the route ourselves, and adding automated switching, we can maintain uptime even when there are breaks along the network.” The route delivers latency of approximately 7 milliseconds to Nairobi and 13 milliseconds to Mombasa, supporting real-time applications such as financial transactions, cloud workloads and enterprise services.
In addition to the traditional A104 corridor, Seacom will be using an alternative pathway via Narok, Kericho, Kisumu. This dual-route approach reduces dependence on a single path and strengthens overall network resilience.
A further differentiator is the use of two border crossings, Malaba and Busia, instead of one. This reduces the risk of a single point of failure and improves network stability for customers operating across borders.
Scalable infrastructure for long-term growth
The Nairobi–Kampala route has been built with future demand in mind. At launch, the network activates 1Tbps of capacity, with the ability to scale up to 30 Tbps as demand grows. This allows Seacom to expand capacity quickly without requiring major redesigns or additional infrastructure builds.
“Demand for data in East Africa is accelerating,” says Kariuki. “We’ve designed this network to scale alongside that growth, so clients can increase capacity as their needs evolve.” Built on DWDM technology, the route supports a range of high-capacity interfaces, including 1GE, 10GE, 100GE and 400GE, enabling flexible connectivity options for enterprises, service providers and hyperscale customers.