Luanda - Angola is due Tuesday to be linked, via a terrestrial fibre optic cable, from the central western province of Benguela, to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Republic of Zambia, in an event to be attended by the Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, as well as the presidents of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema, and of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi.
According to a note from the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication, to which ANGOP had access, the project is part of the Angolan Government's Strategic Plan, with the aim of making Angola the regional hub, in light of the regional objectives of the Southern African Developing Countries (SADC).
The terrestrial fibre connection with the DRC will be carried out by Angolan telecommunications company Angolan Telecom and Liquid Intelligent Technologies of the DRC, via two point-to-point circuits linking Luanda and Kinsaha over a distance of 1,150 km with capacity of 40 billions of bits per second (GBPS) and by Luanda to Cabinda through Noqui Municipality in Zaire Province, thus providing national and foreign users with access to voice and data services.
The terrestrial fibre optic network extension project foreseens to reach optical channels (OCh) of up to 100 Gbps each.
However, the connection to the Republic of Zambia will be made by mobile telephone companies Unitel and MTN, via a point-to-point connection with the Zambian border in the Karipande area of eastern Moxico Province, to the Angola Cables access point in Luanda Province, a distance of around 2,000 km.
The network is a Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) system with 10Gbps optical channels (OCh).
The implementation of these connections marks a crucial historical moment for both countries, especially for SADC, as it will allow countries bordering Zambia and the DRC to have regular access to communication and electronic services through Angola. VM/MRA/jmc
