Facebook has signed a partnership agreement with Guilab, Guinea's largest telecommunications infrastructure operator and gateway to international communications, for the installation of a content distribution network.

According to the agreement, the network will be installed at Guilab's premises and comprises a server and computers networked across the internet.

The agreement also includes the provision of content and data to users.

Globally, content distribution networks are being used to serve a large portion of internet content including web objects (text, graphics and scripts), downloadable objects (media files, software, documents), applications (e-commerce, portals), live streaming media, on-demand streaming media, and social media sites.

The partners believe the alliance will improve user experience by bringing the user's content closer thus reducing loading time and accelerating loading speed. It is also expected to significantly reduce the cost of international bandwidth incurred when accessing Facebook's content.

Mohamed Diallo, chief executive officer at Guilab, said: "Guilab today is fully playing its role of lever of development of the telecom sector in Guinea for the well-being of the population. As the growth of Internet usage is exponential, it is crucial to have a vision of the evolution of our strategic infrastructures over the long term and to be innovative."

Since its launch in March 2013, Guilab has been managing the capacity allocated to Guinea on the Africa Coast Europe submarine cable (ACE).

In December 2018, the operator introduced diversified services including point-to-point leased lines between the different landing points of the ACE submarine cable to telecommunication operators.

It also announced plans to offer international IP Transit service aggregating multiple connections and optimising content available across Guilab's entirely redundant network.