Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a Zimbabwean firm specializing in fiber connectivity, announced, on Tuesday, the acquisition of a fiber pair on Google's Equiano submarine cable. This will enable the Econet Group’s subsidiary to improve international connectivity in West and Southern Africa, with the capacity to transport up to 12 Terabits of traffic.

With its over 100,000 km of African fiber-optic network, backed by satellite services, Liquid Intelligent Technologies will provide high-speed connectivity to the continent's major data centers. It plans to interconnect Equiano's landing stations to its east-west network across Africa, creating a new global IP route between Asia, Africa, and the United States.

The announcement comes days after the long-awaited cable landed in Togo, its first African destination. The investment is part of the group's ambition to become the leading provider of connectivity solutions in Africa. Since 2020, driven by the Covid-19 crisis, the continent has seen an explosion in data consumption as well as the advent of new digital services. "In the last few years, we have witnessed a steady increase in adoption of digital technologies. This wouldn’t have been possible without our investments in high-speed connectivity in coastal as well as landlocked African countries," commented David Eurin (photo), president and CEO of Liquid Dataport.

Once operational, the Equiano cable is expected to allow Liquid to complement and strengthen its domestic and metropolitan fiber networks because older submarine cables are almost at the end of their lifespan. This deployment should enable Liquid to meet the growing demand for high-speed connectivity in both coastal and landlocked countries on the continent. This initiative will also help reduce Internet prices for consumers and businesses.

Isaac K. Kassouwi