MTN Uganda is building a $1.4 million fibre optic telecoms line in the country`s Northern Province to accommodate a growing subscriber base, says CEO Noel Meier.
"We need to start spreading the use of fibre optic lines in the country as the growth of subscriber numbers, like for most of Africa`s telecommunication providers, has exceeded expectations."
The Northern Province implementation will start this month, with the hope of finishing by November, says Meier.
"The fibre cable will run 165km north, from Kampala to Masindi, in a bid to enhance the capacity of MTN`s existing national backbone ring configuration, that is a hybrid of both fibre and microwave radio links."
Essential for reliability
Meier adds $8.5 million has already been invested in a fibre backbone over the past five years, which consists of two self-healing synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) rings that cover both Eastern and Western parts of the country.
Fibre optics are an essential and reliable ingredient to put an end to the network outages that create poor customer service and unreliable revenues.
Meier notes MTN`s fibre network forms part of the East African Backhaul System (EAB) for the Eassy cable. The EAB will run from Dar-es-Salaam, in Tanzania, through Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda to Mombasa, in Kenya. This backhaul infrastructure will provide resilient connectivity to the two Eassy cable landing points that will exist in East Africa.
Other developments, such as demand for broadband services and region-wide co-operative arrangements, are also drivers behind this fibre deployment, he says.
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