Plans are afoot by telecommunications and internet service providers Camtel, SudaChad Telecom and Sudatel to connect their respective countries – Cameroon, Chad and Sudan – via land-based fibre optic link.

The strategic partnership, jointly announced by the companies’ executive management, involves the interconnection of existing terrestrial optic fibre and the deployment of WE-Africa-NA or West to East Africa Network Access. The interconnection is expected to provide high-speed connectivity at an estimated capacity of 100 Gbps.

WE-Africa-NA will run from Port-Sudan on the Red Sea, passing across Chad, to Kribi on the Atlantic coast.

Mustafa Burai from Sudatel said the circa 3,500km-long optic fibre cable will be upgraded in the third quarter of 2022.

Camtel officials told ITWeb Africa that the partnership was put in place to respond to the demand for high-speed data connectivity on the continent and also to support the growing demand for low-latency transit on- and across the continent.

The partnership also aligns with the Africa Union’s 2020-2030 digital transformation strategy which seeks an integrated and inclusive digital society and economy in Africa.

General Manager of Camtel, Judith Yah Sunday said: “This historic partnership among Camtel, SudaChad and Sudatel represents an important lap in intra-African collaboration on the development of the digital economy. The continuous network WE-Africa-NA will accelerate penetration of high-speed broadband services throughout the continent while maximising the monetisation of the region’s network infrastructure assets in line with our ambition to turn Cameroon into the digital hub of Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Camtel management is optimistic that WE-Africa-NA will allow network operators in East Africa and the Middle East to connect directly to Europe and America via various cable landing stations on the Atlantic Ocean.

Camtel has access and exploitation rights over several submarine cable systems including SAT3, WACS, ACE, NCSCS and SAIL.

On the Sudanese side, Port-Sudan hosts landing stations of several cable systems from Saudi Arabia as well as the Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy).