Prompted by an increase in demand for cloud, communication, connectivity and carrier services in Kenya, pan-African connectivity services provider Internet Solutions has initiated an upgrade of its fibre network to 10GB and selected solution provider Telco Systems for the job.

Telco Systems provides CE 2.0, MPLS, IP and SDN & NFV solutions to the market. Internet Solutions is positioned to assist businesses in embracing the cloud as an alternative to maintaining server rooms and large-scale software and platform infrastructure installations.

The decision to upgrade the network was made in order to support more data traffic and meet an increasing need for bandwidth.

Internet Solutions Kenya says the upgrade is scheduled to take 12 months beginning in June 2017 and the goal is to conduct a seamless upgrade with minimal impact to services.

The service provider adds that the last time it initiated a major core network upgrade of this scale was in 2015.

According to the company, the upgrade will provide it with full MPLS services across the network, with up to 10GB at any point. "This will allow us to deliver more robust services to our customers, including rapid service provisioning and simplified network deployment and maintenance activities on our end."

Telco Systems will provide Internet Solutions Kenya with a fully automated software-defined network with the capacity to support 10GE. This new network will also be fully orchestrated, benefiting Internet Solutions Kenya with rapid service provisioning and simplified network deployment and maintenance activities.

The companies explain that to facilitate this network upgrade project, Telco Systems will supply Internet Solutions Kenya with its EdgeGenie Orchestrator service management system along its T-Metro 7124, T-Marc 3348 and T-Marc 3308 demarcation devices.

"In the last two years, we have been experiencing a growing demand for higher capacity and other layered services from our customers," said Richard Hechle, Managing Director of Internet Solutions Kenya. "We are pleased to be expanding our long-standing relationship with Telco Systems and we are confident that the company's innovation networking technologies will enable us to deliver more capacity and will allow us to better utilise our infrastructure in order to better serve customers with new and improved services."

Hechle added, "Not too long ago, the buzzword in the ICT circles was Cloud. Today, it has matured into an understood service, earning a place now even among the small and medium enterprise segment; In 2015 it was a novelty but now it is an important part of building resiliency for IT infrastructure which will be a step towards maturity and also shape how business is carried out in 2017."

According to Hechle continued network expansion with the operationalisation of 4G/LTE adoption by mobile service operators is also expected to grow.

"This means that as players we need to look at both customer and business value, spend more time and resources on innovation that will support Over the Top Services such as On-demand TV services, Content Delivery Networks and Broadband TV, intensifying competition with Pay TV providers."

Internet Solutions references the State of the Internet Report 2016 by Akamai, in which Kenya was ranked fastest in internet speeds in Africa and the Middle East at 15mbps ahead of Israel, Africa, Morocco, and Nigeria.

"For Internet Solutions Kenya, this network upgrade is a major step forward in creating one of the highest quality and most reliable networks not only in Kenya, but across Africa," explained Ariel Efrati, CEO of Telco Systems.