Liquid Telecom and KETRACO partner to build KSh618M fiber network in East Africa

Liquid Telecom and Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) have inked a 10-year partnership to build fibre network across Kenya and East Africa.

“We are delighted to be doing more than extending power lines. With KETRACO and Liquid Telecom coming together, we are now taking fibre to where it has never been before whilst diversifying our company’s revenue base,” said FCPA Fernandes Barasa, KETRACo’s Managing Director.

On the other hand, George Kuria, Liquid Telecom’s Infrastructure Build and Deployment General Manager(East Africa) said, “A resilient telecommunications network requires reliable connectivity and KETRACO overhead fibre cable is a technology that is superior to buried fibre or microwave connectivity.”

Kuria said the fibre cable will significantly expand their networks and add resilience to their connectivity with a limitless capacity to carry any amounts of data bandwidth.

“We will invest in high-capacity equipment at the terminating point to ensure we achieve the largest data capacity possible and serve the region with the fastest and most stable internet ever achieved in East Africa,” he said.

The partnership will begin by upgrading fibre connections to Kenya areas connected to the national grid with high voltage lines of 132kV and above which include Garissa, Isiolo, Garsen, Lamu, Rabai, Namanga, Meru, Machakos, Makueni, Wote, Sultan Hamud, Mwingi, Konza, Kitale, Eldoret, Kisii and Kisumu.

The line will then extend fibre connections to Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, eastern Congo and Burundi.

Currently, KETRACO runs a 1,791.5 km electricity transmission network within Kenya and by 2020, the company will have completed construction of over 8,000 km of high voltage transmission lines with concurrent fibre connectivity.

These include the 127km 400kV Kenya -Uganda, the 612km 500kV Ethiopia – Kenya and the 93kV Kenya -Tanzania interconnectors.

KETRACO applied for a Network Facility Provider Tier 2 license from the Communications Authority of Kenya, which was granted in 2014.