Orange and its subsidiaries announced the commissioning and commercial launch of Djoliba, a terrestrial fibre optic network, coupled with undersea cables, serving west African.
This new backbone covers 8 countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. Natively interconnected with the domestic networks within the countries, this broad coverage will generalise access to connectivity for operators and companies. The network covers more than 10,000 km of terrestrial fibrem 10,000 km of subsea cable and 16 points of presence with a grid of nearly 155 technical sites.
Orange describes Djoliba as the first unified superfast broadband network for Africa. The network is operated and maintained from Dakar.
Alioune Ndiaye, CEO Orange Middle East and Africa: “Orange is actively contributing to the development of undersea and terrestrial infrastructure which enable the African continent’s digital transformation, by investing 1 billion euros each year. With Djoliba, local populations will be able to access healthcare or educational services more easily, as well as the applications offered by cloud computing. Development of access to digital technology is a key challenge for Africa and I would like to congratulate our teams in all the countries for their remarkable work that has enabled the Djoliba project to come to fruition.”
Jérôme Barré, CEO Orange Wholesale & International Networks: “With Djoliba, Orange is once again confirming its expertise and leadership in the deployment and operation of international terrestrial and undersea networks. Consequently, all the operators, companies and institutions in West Africa now benefit from seamless connectivity that is open to the whole world, thanks to a single customer point of contact and unparalleled service availability. Djoliba is the fruit of a group effort, and thanks to a fully mobilised cross-functional team, we have been able to meet this sizeable challenge. This human adventure illustrates the Orange Group’s strength, both due to its local presence through its subsidiaries and its capacity to build shared international assets.”
