Telkom has completed the first phase of its KSh 600 million upgrade project on its national backbone and metropolitan transmission networks. This upgrade is part of Telkom’s modernization programme, which has already seen the Telco invest KSh5 Billion towards network modernisation, leading to the launch of its 4G network; currently available in 32 towns and urban centres across the country and also the doubling of capacity and coverage on its 3G network.
The upgrade to Telkom’s national backbone and metropolitan transmission networks will deliver triple backup features, enriched service experience and extended reach to its customers in the East African market. Telkom will be seeking to cement its position in high-speed data, serving the local and international ISPs and Service Providers, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and Over The Top Providers (OTTs) with this strategic investment.
Managing Director, Carrier Services Division, Kebaso G. Mokogi says the investment in ultrafast backbone and metro infrastructure will offer faster, more reliable data connections to Telkom customers. “Our strategic intent to becoming the region’s infrastructure provider of choice hinges on providing the right infrastructure that delivers the right value to our customers. This investment is a renewal of our commitment to continue delivering unmatched value to our customers in Kenya and the wider East African region,” says Mr. Mokogi.
The rehabilitated metropolitan network is designed to provide ultrafast data around key carrier routes in Nairobi, with minimal disruptions. The project was implemented in preparation of increased data uptake from the increasing penetration of mobile services and high consumption of video content. The new triple redundancy network has ASON (Automatic Switching Optical Network) capability and aims to deliver a “real experience” with minimal disruption in a city with several infrastructure projects that are ongoing. ASON also gives the benefit of easier network operation and offers higher network reliability, providing better up-times for customers.
The Backbone improvement has created triple redundancy on the route through the use of Telkom’s own fiber, NOFBI (which is the Kenyan Government owned fiber that is managed by Telkom) and via Kenya Power’s overhead cables.
The diversity of the routes on the Metro and Backbone route provides full redundancy to customer links and ensures high level Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met. This has also led to improvements in service availability despite the interruptions caused by road, pipeline, rail and other national infrastructure projects.
Telkom has also increased the number of maintenance teams on these critical routes and has ensured they are fully equipped to attend to downtimes within the least amount of time and to also continuously check on the health of the infrastructure as a proactive maintenance measure.
Telkom is already working on the second phase of the infrastructure improvement project which will involve increasing capacity and redundancy to other metro cities and an extension of the backbone network into key strategic markets. The project will ensure that Telkom’s infrastructure gets closer to the end customers. On the Enterprise Business front, Telkom has kicked off a Fibre-to-the-Building project, which has seen close to 300 commercial buildings, in a number of urban centres across the country, connected to Telkom’s fibre network.
