Wholesale operator WIOCC is connecting African countries into the world’s internet through a new cable, EASSy. Chris Wood explains that WIOCC sees a future where Africa will be united through innovative telecommunications that is accessible to all. Co-sponsored feature: WIOCC

Chris Wood: WIOCC and EASSy will interconnect 20 African countries and provide connectivity to many landlocked African countries

EASSy has landing stations along the east African coast and also connects into landlocked nations

WIOCC is a telecommunications carriers’ carrier created to provide its customers with reliable, low cost, high-speed telecommunications services between south, central and eastern Africa to the rest of the world.

The services — delivered throughout the region via the East African Submarine System (EASSy) and WIOCC shareholders’ terrestrial national networks — will enable African and international telecom service providers to interconnect and provide ICT services that will spur development and growth.

WIOCC is a specially created African investment company, jointly owned by a grouping of 12 major telecom operators in east, central and southern Africa — all first or second tier operators in their respective countries and funded by a number of global development finance institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the French agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the German development bank KFW.

For a list of the 12 telecom companies that own WIOCC, see panel.

WIOCC is the largest shareholder (29%) in the EASSy submarine cable. EASSy is owned and operated by a group of African (92%) and international (8%) telecom operators.

EASSy incorporates the latest developments in submarine fibre-optic technology — finally making it economical to connect the east coast of Africa into the high-speed global infrastructure.

When fully deployed, EASSy will connect Africa into the global internet, with landing stations in South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros Islands Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan — bringing affordable, high-capacity interconnection to nine south and east African seaboard countries.

EASSy has the largest number of landing station for any east coast submarine system.

EASSy is also the highest capacity system being built on the eastern seaboard, with two fibre pairs and carrying data at 1.4 terabits a second. It is designed with scalability to allow bandwidth provisioning from E1 to SMT64 and wavelengths. No other submarine system is designed to provide such scalable service provisioning.

Through its vast shareholder backhaul networks WIOCC and EASSy will interconnect 20 African countries and provide connectivity to many landlocked African countries.

EASSy is also the only eastern Africa system to be based on a collapsed ring architecture that provides resilience against equipment and branch failure. WIOCC and EASSy has the lowest cost base — $260 million — of any east coast system, and unlike the others its funding mechanism embodies developmental objectives that will ensure open access and fair pricing to all.

WIOCC will offer a range of services to African and international carriers, extending the reach of the EASSy network through interconnection agreements with operators of other international submarine cable systems giving access to Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas.

WIOCC will also take advantage of its owners’ extensive national networks to extend services from EASSy’s coastal landing stations to key cities in each country, and for the first time open up access to many landlocked countries in Africa’s interior.

The landlocked countries that will be connected into the EASSy’s network include:

• Botswana
• Burundi
• Ethiopia
• Malawi
• Rwanda
• Swaziland
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

WIOCC’s carrier customers will be able to take advantage of one-stop shop contracts for cost-effective, reliable and seamless connectivity between numerous city PoPs and landing stations in south, central and east Africa and the world’s key commercial and financial centres and internet exchanges.

Alternatively, they can simply bring their traffic to a WIOCC hub — at Djibouti, Port Sudan or Mtunzini — where international carriers can hand-off traffic for carriage into Africa, and African operators can do the same for onward transfer to international locations.

WIOCC sees a future where Africa will be united through innovative telecommunications that is accessible to all. WIOCC is the future in fibre connectivity for Africa. GTB

United Africa connecting the world

Why WIOCC? WIOCC is the largest shareholder in EASSy and is owned by 12 Africa telcos. The company is solid and has existing and established backhaul infrastructure that will unite Africa connecting the world.

WIOCC key differentiators

1: Scalability: WIOCC has capacity for everyone: From entry level capacity E1 — two megabits a second — to massive STM 64 or 10 gigabits a second wavelengths.

2: Flexible contract terms: WIOCC gives a choice of contracts terms to suit customers’ needs and growth patterns. WIOCC offer contracts from one month up to 10 years for leases or indefeasible right of use for the life of the cable.

3: Price: WIOCC is a development project funded by African telecom operators and global development finance institutions. It has the advantage of economies of scale and can leverage on its shareholders strength to offer significantly lower prices than other competing offers.

4: Non-discriminatory: Services are available to small, medium and large telcos, ISPs or organisations that are licensed to buy from international carriers

5: Backhaul network: WIOCC has extensive shareholder backhaul networks that interconnect 20 African countries to major business, financial and commercial centres around the world. With WIOCC customers can get to places where no one else can cost-effectively take them.

6. Collapsed ring: The EASSy submarine cable is the only cable along the east African coast based on a collapsed ring design that minimises the impact of cable cuts and equipment failure.

7: Landlocked countries connectivity: Shareholder backhaul network interconnects nine landlocked counties within the region

8: Simple and straightforward: WIOCC offers one stop shop service to customers: an end-to-end service with a single contract for pricing, customer support, provisioning and maintenance.

9: Onward connectivity: WIOCC offers the most diverse routes for onward connectivity, interconnecting Africa to the world through an extensive backhaul infrastructure and nine landing stations. By partnering with international global carriers, WIOCC has a flexible portfolio of services designed to meet the needs of Africa and international service providers.

10: Network Monitoring: 24x7x365 network monitoring, management and customer support.

Telecom companies participating in WIOCC

Botswana: Botswana Telecommunications Corporation

Burundi: U-Com Burundi

Burundi: Onatel Burundi

Djibouti: Djibouti Telecom

Kenya: Telkom Kenya Orange

Lesotho: Lesotho Telecommunications Authority

Mozambique: TDM Mozambique

Nigeria: Gilat Satcom Nigeria Limited

Somalia: Dalkom Somalia

Seychelles: Government of Seychelles

Tanzania: Zanzibar Telecom

Uganda: Uganda Telecom

Services

Leased capacity: A short or longer-term lease of capacity between WIOCC’s points of presence in major cities and at landing stations.

• Bandwidths — options ranging from one or more E1s (2 megabits a second), through STM-1 (155 megabits a second), STM-4 (622 megabits a second) and up to 10 gigabits a second
• Contract terms starting at three months, up to 10 years
• Locations — landing station to landing station; city PoP to city PoP
• Protected or unprotected with corresponding service-level guarantees
• Payments — monthly or quarterly, in advance

Indefeasible right of use (IRU)

A long-term lease effectively giving temporary ownership of a portion of the capacity on the WIOCC network

• Bandwidths from an E1 or multiple E1s, up to and beyond an STM-1 (155 megabits a second)
• Contract terms: the design life of the cable (25 years)
• Payments — a single up-front payment, plus a small annual maintenance charge for operating your share of the system
• Ideal for carriers requiring long-term, assured bandwidth between specific locations

Further options

• drop and insert — increasing bandwidth efficiency by allowing traffic streams to be dropped off and inserted at locations between the two end-points;
• portability — relocation of either end of a circuit during the contract term;
• lease-to-IRU conversion — migration from lease to IRU during the term of the contract — and volume and term-based discounts;
• capacity can be procured as full or half-circuits between any two points.

Chris Wood is CEO of WIOCC

Citadel House, 2nd Floor Wing A, Muthithi Road, Westlands, PO Box 14137 – 00800, Nairobi, Kenya

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