LANRE Kolade, CEO of CSquared, the company overseeing the Equiano cable landing station in Lome, Togo, has announced a significant enhancement in internet capacity for West Africa in response to recent cable faults. CSquared, a digital infrastructure company specializing in open-access broadband infrastructure across Africa, has stepped up efforts to address internet outages caused by damaged cables serving the region.
The Equiano cable, landed in Togo by CSquared in 2022 with services operationalised in 2023, emerged as a crucial lifeline for internet connectivity in West Africa following disruptions to other major cables such as ACE, WACS, MainOne, and Sat3 last week. These damages triggered a widespread internet blackout across West and Central Africa, underscoring the critical importance of robust digital infrastructure in the region.
In response to the crisis, CSquared has collaborated closely with carriers across Africa to mitigate the impact of the outages. CEO Lanre Kolade (pictured) highlighted the company’s swift action in bolstering internet capacity, particularly in Togo and neighbouring countries.
‘We have connected our cross-border circuit into Ghana from Togo and also into Benin. We have increased capacity for Togocom, GVA, and our other customers in Togo. We have also provided capacity to MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana through the Equiano cable landing station in Lome,’ Kolade told tech news outlet Capacity Media.
The Equiano cable’s capacity in Lome has seen a remarkable fourfold increase since before the outages, with an additional 300G activated to meet surging demand.
‘We are activating an additional 300G today, from 100G before the outages to 400G today,’ Kolade stated, emphasising the urgency of the situation. ‘The demand was unprecedented in such a short time. It was an emergency. We have 3tbps of capacity on Equiano, and we needed to spec up our nodes to handle the expected increases.’
Looking ahead, Kolade expressed optimism that valuable lessons would be learned from the recent events, advocating for the permanent utilisation of diverse routes to enhance network resilience in the face of future challenges.
As CSquared continues to play a pivotal role in fortifying internet infrastructure across Africa, stakeholders remain hopeful that such measures will contribute to a more resilient and interconnected digital landscape in the region.