Wholesale network service provider Workonline Communications has expanded its East African presence by making its IP transit services available in Nairobi, Kenya. Workonline Communications' head of business development, Benjamin Deveaux, states that the further expansion of the company's service offering in East Africa was fuelled by the region's growing demand for better connectivity services and the company's commitment to the development of Africa's ICT sector.

"As more users come online in East Africa at an incredible pace, the region continues to be strategically important for the development of the African Internet landscape," explains Deveaux. "To realise this potential, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) need more upstreams who are focused on wholesale and who offer faster, more stable connectivity to the rest of the world. Conversely, these developments mean that Workonline's customers outside the region can reach Kenya and East Africa over a stable and reliable network, with lower latency. Our focus on the development of the local market in Kenya through our wholesale IP transit services will assist in the growth of local networks who will be able to connect, through us, to the rest of the world, and remain competitive in this fast changing market."

Deveaux outlines that Kenya's regional leadership in the telecommunications space, the regulatory environment, as well as its existing and future infrastructure, positions the country extremely attractively to investors and international content providers, and is highly promising in terms of ICT development and growth.

"Our aim is to connect Africa to the world and the world to Africa, and our further expansion into the region is another step toward achieving this goal," he explains. "For many networks who have already branched out into Southern Africa, deploying in East and West Africa are the next obvious steps in their strategies. We are excited about the prospects for growth in the region and look forward to working alongside the local community."

Workonline (AS 37271) is the fastest growing IP transit network in Africa and one of the largest in Africa. The company is focused on providing highly scalable, high quality, and flexible service options to meet the needs of carriers, Internet service providers, content providers, and mobile operators.

"Our international links connect East and Southern Africa to the rest of the world through all available routes. The quality of our network is amplified by our partnerships with the world's leading global tier 1 IP transit providers such as Level 3, NTT, TI Sparkle, TeliaSonera, GTT, Tata and Cogent." says Deveaux. "This allows us to provide the lowest latency world-class IP transit services possible to our clients across sub-Saharan Africa."

In addition to offering its services, Workonline Communications is committed to developing the operating environment further, by doing its part in developing key skills, providing training to the local community where necessary, promoting IPv6 development, and assisting to lower the operating costs of ISPs in the region.

"At Workonline we see access to the Internet as a basic human right, and realise the potential it has to change lives and economies in which we operate for the better. We are excited about this next step in our expansion strategy and look forward to connecting more networks to the Internet," concludes Deveaux.