The Equiano subsea internet cable has been brought ashore in Namibia just under 18 months after the February 2021 announcement that Paratus Group, together with Telecom Namibia, had been selected to build the cable landing station (CLS) for Equiano.
Paratus, a provider of a full-service network spanning the African continent, completed the building of the CLS in September last year. The internal fit – including power, cabling cabinets, conduits, raceways, cages and security – was completed in January 2022.
Once Equiano, a private international cable owned by Google, becomes fully operational in Q4 this year, it is expected to deliver up to 20 times more capacity than was previously available in Namibia.
Paratus cites a recent economic impact assessment, conducted by Africa Practice and Genesis Analytics and commissioned by Google, that suggest that Equiano’s arrival in Namibia is set to increase internet speeds by over 2.5 times; increase internet penetration by 7.5% in the next three years; and act as a catalyst for considerable growth, job creation and sustainability.
As the current CEO of Paratus Group, Barney Harmse, explains: “Namibia has higher internet connection levels – at 40.5% compared with an average of 29% for sub-Saharan African countries – but has relied upon the West Africa Cable System (WACS) for its international connectivity until now.”
He continues: “The landing of the Equiano cable will significantly increase Namibia’s international bandwidth capacity as it is four times greater than WACS. This will not only ensure better stability of connectivity in the country, but also lower latency and higher speeds in global transmission of data.”
This is another milestone for this ambitious cable project. In April we reported that WIOCC had landed Google’s Equiano subsea cable in Lagos, Nigeria.
