A new agreement between Liquid Intelligent Technologies and Nokia will see the launch of a first-of-its-kind network connecting subsea landing stations in Kenya, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The terrestrial network, which will create a digital highway with the potential to handle significant traffic across sub-Saharan Africa, forms part of an agreement that will see Nokia deploy a next-generation optical transport network connecting Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, the DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

According to a joint statement issued by the duo, Nokia is deploying 145 nodes of 1830 photonic service switch in the seven countries, with a total design capacity up to 12 Tb/s.

Once launched, the optical transport backbone will enable Liquid Intelligent Technologies to address the growing demand for capacity and deliver submarine traffic to landlocked countries at an affordable cost.

“Internet giants, established cloud service providers and other mega-organisations are demanding hyperscale data centres that can support high levels of performance, spikes in demand and redundancy while enabling massive availability,” says Liquid Intelligent Technologies group chief technology officer Shahzad Manzoor Khan.

“Our new terrestrial fiber corridor is the first of its kind in Africa in terms of distance and capacity. We are thrilled to partner with Nokia on this prestigious project which will transform Africa’s digital infrastructure and propel the region’s economy.”

Nokia Central East and West Africa market unit head Rajiv Aggarwal adds that Nokia’s next-generation optical network will enable Liquid Intelligent Technologies to maintain its leadership position and emerge as a preferred partner of organisations requiring massive capacity.

“We are delighted that our technology and expertise will help Liquid Intelligent Technologies provide the best-in-class digital infrastructure to Africa’s enterprises and will play a role in strengthening the digital infrastructure of the continent.”

Liquid Intelligent Technologies’ new optical backbone covers the sites with a colourless and flexgrid ROADM network for improved agility and flexibility.

The generalised multi-protocol label switching feature of the new optical transport network will help reduce network disruptions by enabling automatic rerouting to alternate paths as needed.