Kenya’s tel-co giant Safaricom announced that it will be deploying a 400G network link. The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain.
This move puts Safaricom among the first globally to commercially deploy the solution to the masses. The 400G link will see Safaricom’s network become more robust. Safaricom says that the rollout was promoted by consumers’ demand for higher video quality for mobile and home fiber customers.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers approved the 400G standard in December 2017, clearing the way for its deployment by network equipment suppliers and operators
Related article: Ethiopia’s Ethio-Telcom to be privatised to encourage investors
Safaricom, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Thibaud Rerolle said, “The 400G solution will support the continued growth of our network which is being driven by an explosion in internet usage. Mobile data usage on our network has been doubling year-on-year while our fiber network now reaches more than 220,000 homes and 17,000 businesses across more than ten towns. It was therefore prudent to invest in the latest network technology to ensure that we can support the demand from our customers for years to come.”
Huawei will support the link’s infrastructure and growing the tel-co’s capacity to carry internet traffic and also enabling it to achieve theoretical speeds of up to 400GBps up from 100 Gigabits per second.
