Econet subsidiary sinks $200m into Sadc

Published: 14 May 2014

Econet Wireless Global's Liquid Telecom will inject $200 million for the expansion of its fibre-optic cable network in the Sadc region.

Liquid chief executive Nic Rudnick said they intend to spend the money in the next 18 months.

"Liquid Telecom plans to spend about $200 million in the next 18 months to roll out more kilometres of fibreoptic cable network across sub-Saharan Africa," he said.

This expansion of the network will increase Liquid's geographical footprint, with three countries outside the Sadc region scheduled to be added. The bulk of the investment will be in fibre to business premises in key countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

In South Africa, Liquid will expand its coverage in Limpopo, where it will roll out a fibre-optic network in selected towns such as Tzaneen. "The area will receive fibre for the first time," Rudnick said. Meanwhile, the company has completed the back-haul network between Johannesburg and Beitbridge, in Limpopo, on the Zimbabwe border.

"The back-haul, sold at wholesale rates, will transmit data and voice traffic to the core network owned by various operators. Liquid already has more than 15 000km of fibre-optic cable, carrying traffic across many countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

"This network had resulted in the improved quality of voice calls and data download and upload, as well as reduced communications costs," said Rudnick. Liquid said that before its fibre network was commercialised, international calls between some of the affected countries were carried by satellite.

Having a fibre-optic network would help improve telecommunications services.

In addition to the network infrastructure, Liquid has launched digital services for businesses including cloud services and backup technologies, and will develop more services for consumers.

These digital services include video on demand, an area of focus especially for telecommunications service providers.
- BH24