Company expands Africa’s open access digital infrastructure with high-capacity cable connectivity between Europe, Nigeria and South Africa

WIOCC, a leading provider of digital connectivity and infrastructure across Africa, is working with Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) to become the first operator to activate a fiber pair on the new Equiano submarine cable system.

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Running a total of 15,000km from Portugal along the African west coast, Equiano will be one of the largest cables serving Africa, with 12 fiber pairs delivering a total of 144Tbps of capacity. WIOCC is a key investor in Equiano, owning a full fiber pair on the system in addition to submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) from Ciena. Working with Ciena makes it possible for WIOCC to move rapidly in activating and then adding to its capacity to meet expanding demand for connectivity in South Africa, Nigeria and neighboring countries. Spectrum sharing is supported across the network, allowing WIOCC to broaden its service portfolio.

Chris Wood, WIOCC Group CEO, commented: “Ciena has extensive experience delivering market-leading submarine network solutions across the globe. This collaboration offers us the best lead times, a great commercial proposition and high-quality, accessible technical support – all vital as we expand our ability to support the cloud and wholesale community in Africa. Not only has this allowed us to pre-install our SLTE in Open Access Data Centre (OADC) facilities in Lagos, Nigeria, and Rondebosch, South Africa – meaning we’ll be able to light up our capacity as soon as the Equiano system goes live – but it’s also optimized budget utilization, enabling us to invest further in other parts of our network.”

“We’re also teaming up with Ciena on the new 2Africa submarine cable, on which we own a fiber pair across the system. The cable, now in deployment and scheduled to go live in stages throughout 2023 and 2024, will land directly in the new carrier-neutral OADC facility in Durban,” Wood added.

Ian Clarke, Vice President of Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena, said: “Having worked with us on other African cables, WIOCC is again entrusting us to maximize its network assets. Our collaboration is ensuring the systems, and regions, keep pace with bandwidth demands while reducing transport costs. Together, we’re making connectivity smarter and faster, utilizing software automation and AI to bring it ever closer to end users.”

To achieve this, WIOCC is deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme Solution, which leverages the 6500 Reconfigurable Line System (RLS), WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optics and Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller. Ciena Services is providing turnkey planning, design and deployment services to ensure project success.

“For WIOCC, this initiative represents a significant investment in establishing and expanding Africa’s converged open access digital infrastructure, linking submarine fiber pair ownership with hyperscale terrestrial buildout and cloud expansion in key markets across sub-Saharan Africa, expediting digital transformation throughout the region,” said Wood.

About WIOCC Group

WIOCC Group is a leading digital connectivity provider in Africa. It offers connectivity services through its extensive open-access, carrier-neutral digital infrastructure to cloud operators, content providers, broadband and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across Africa, which in turn provide voice, data, applications, content and fibre access services to their end users and subscribers. The company is a strategic investor in hyperscale terrestrial networks, and in multiple subsea cables including 2Africa, Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), Equiano and the West Africa Cable System (WACS). Through WIOCC Group company Open Access Data Centres, it is establishing a rapidly growing data centre footprint in Africa, comprising 35 new facilities including hosting cable landing points for both 2Africa and Equiano. For more information, visit https://wiocc.net/ and https://www.openaccessdc.net/.

About Ciena

Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking systems, services and software company. We provide solutions that help our customers create the Adaptive Network™ in response to the constantly changing demands of their end-users. By delivering best-in-class networking technology through high-touch consultative relationships, we build the world’s most agile networks with automation, openness and scale. For updates on Ciena, follow us on Twitter @Ciena, LinkedIn, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit www.ciena.com.

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