Somaliland: Somcable to build African fibre net


A company planning a terrestrial fibre network in the north-east African territory of Somaliland has awarded an equipment contract to Canadian optical networking specialist Optelian.

Somcable is planning to build a network to link Somaliland to the Berbera landing station on the Gulf of Aden, served by submarine cables running from the Red Sea along the east African coast.

Michael Cothill, Somcable's CEO, said: "After exploring various network architectures we converged on a next-generation IP over dense wave division multiplexing optical network to carry voice and data traffic throughout Somaliland and Optelian provides exactly what we are looking for."

According to Somcable's website, "the entire region of Somaliland is to be given access to next-generation broadband by end of 2014, thanks to a £35 million rollout to be carried out by Somcable".

The company says that "the investment will see 1,200 kilometres of new fibre being laid to bring speeds of up to 100 megabits a second to homes and businesses in the region".

Cothill says on the website that the rollout would stand as a "flagship example of what can be achieved with new technology in the emerging market".

Somaliland is an autonomous region that has declared independence from the African state of Somalia. Its independence is generally unrecognised by other states around the world.