Facebook Partners with Liquid Technologies to Extend Network Reach in Africa

Facebook and Liquid Technologies have announced a partnership to improve internet access in Africa by laying a 2,000-kilometre fiber network in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The long-haul metro fiber network will serve up to 30 million people and help meet the growing demand for regional connectivity across Central Africa.

Facebook will invest in fiber build and support network planning. Liquid Technologies will own, build and operate the fiber network, and provide wholesale services to mobile network operators and internet service providers.

The network will help create a digital corridor from the Atlantic Ocean through the Congo Rainforest, the second-largest rainforest after the Amazon, to East Africa, and onto the Indian Ocean. Liquid Technologies has been working on the digital corridor for more than two years, which now reaches Central DRC.

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This corridor will connect DRC to its neighboring countries including Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

The new build will stretch from Central DRC to the Eastern border with Rwanda and extend the reach of 2Africa, a major undersea cable that will land along both the East and West African coasts, and better connect Africa to the Middle East and Europe.

Additionally, Liquid will employ more than 5,000 people from local communities to build the fiber network.

“This is one of the most difficult fiber builds ever undertaken, crossing more than 2,000 kilometers of some of the most challenging terrain in the world,” said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO of Liquid Intelligent Technologies.

“Liquid Technologies and Facebook have a common mission to provide affordable infrastructure to bridge connectivity gaps, and we believe our work together will have a tremendous impact on internet accessibility across the region.”

“This fiber build with Liquid Technologies is one of the most exciting projects we have worked on,” said

According to Ibrahima Ba, Director of Network Investments, Emerging Markets at Facebook, deploying fiber in the region is not easy but it is a crucial part of extending broadband access to under-connected areas.

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“We look forward to seeing how our fiber build will help increase the availability and improve the affordability of high-quality internet in DRC,” he added.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies is present in more than 20 countries in Africa, with a vision of a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind.