The 5,000km DARE1 submarine cable connects Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia to data centres and content providers around the world. Djibouti Telecom acts as an operator on eight submarine cables along with other players, with its home market having grown as a connectivity hub partly due to its location on the northeast coast of the Horn of Africa on a busy shipping route.
For the upgrade, the operator is using Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine networking technology, enabling a doubling of rates up to 400Gbps. Spectrum-sharing capabilities also allow the partitioning of submarine optical spectrum to different users for more efficient asset use.
“Submarine cable networks are our lifeline to the connected world, especially with more people relying on the internet than ever before,” said Mohamed Assoweh Bouh, general manager of Djibouti Telecom. “The DARE1 upgrade lets us bring much-needed connectivity and content closer to more users faster – priming our area for economic growth today and for years to come.”
Ian Clarke, vice president of global submarine solutions at Ciena, added: “Leveraging Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, Djibouti Telecom expands the capacity of DARE1 to make possible dynamic new 10G, 100G and spectrum-sharing services for an increasingly digital world.”
