Access Kenya announces completion of Phase 1 network upgrade

Integrated solutions provider Access Kenya has announced the completion of a network upgrade in the towns of Nairobi, Nakuru and Thika aimed at boosting resilience and to increase business connectivity.

The Kes 300 Million Investment, will enable Access Kenya cover 18 of the country’s major towns by 2016 with fiber connectivity and enhanced bandwidth in response to business growth in these regions.

“The number of enterprises and county-reliant businesses that need high speed connectivity and other related solutions has been on the rise and this has been exerting a strain on existing resources. To meet this demand, we are deploying infrastructure to widen our network footprint as well as increase the bandwidth to reach more corporate customers with reliable connectivity” said Raymond Macharia- Chief Technical Officer, Access Kenya.

The Network upgrade will see a consolidation of functions by reducing the number of devices used in the transmission of data into fewer, more powerful devices. The operation will be carried out on both Fibre and Wireless networks, resulting in more efficient infrastructure and therefore faster internet connectivity.

“In addition to high speed connectivity, these businesses require additional solutions. A stronger network will enhance the capabilities to deliver layered services such as real-time CCTV monitoring, VOIP and Video on Demand, Data Backup Services and other key services which all require high speed and high quality connectivity. We have also ensured that the new hardware can now handle these additional demands in data rates of up to 100 Giga bits per second”, added Raymond.

To ensure uninterrupted service to customers and a strategy that will see the company shift concentration and invest more in service delivery, Access Kenya has augmented its infrastructure through redundant fiber from its partners to provide additional resiliency to protect against traffic failures. This means that in addition to already existing infrastructure, Access Kenya will now use the additional fiber to reroute traffic in case of an emergency to protect clients from any disruption to their connectivity.

“The growing demand for our services is almost parallel to growth in other sectors. This growth has seen the construction of roads and other related infrastructure which almost always poses a risk to our network both natural and man-made. When the network is disrupted the customer has to therefore waste time and therefore money awaiting the restoration which sometimes may take a day. The strategy to reroute traffic is a revenue preservation (service continuity) measure which ensures that our clients are not affected through loss of time or revenue as they await restoration of service” Added Raymond.

Running concurrently with the network upgrade, the company has also announced the ongoing upgrade of it’s Core Network expected to be completed later in the year. The upgrade which will be carried out in phases and will involve the activation and increase the number of core nodes in order to boost resilience and widen the reach.

Access Kenya is betting on increased fiber connectivity speeds and reliability to reach new customers in the corporate segment for the delivery of layered solutions on a strong data service provision backed by growth of Small and Medium Enterprises.