WIOCC set to activate fibre pair on the new Equiano cable

The African digital connectivity and infrastructure provider WIOCC has announced that, working with Ciena, it is set to become the first operator to activate a fibre pair on the new Equiano submarine cable system.

The details of the new Equiano submarine connectivity solution 

The submarine cable system will run a total of 15,000km, and stretch from Portugal along the African west coast. It will consist of 12 fibre pairs, delivering a total capacity of 144 tbps.

Once complete, it will be one of the largest cables serving Africa.

WIOCC is one of the key investors in the new Equiano cable. In addition to owning a full fibre pair on the system, it also owns submarine line terminal equipment (SLTE) from Ciena. 

Through its collaboration with Ciena, WIOCC is able to rapidly activate and then extend its capacity, so that it can continue to meet demand. 

“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,” commented Chris Wood, WIOCC Group CEO.

“Not only has this allowed us to pre-install our SLTE in Open Access Data Centres (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 optimised budget utilisation, 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 fibre 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 explained.

“Having worked with us on other African cables, WIOCC is again entrusting us to maximise its network assets,” added Ian Clarke, Vice President of Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena. 

“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, utilising software automation and AI to bring it ever closer to end users.”