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Photograph (L to R): Stanley Jegede, CEO, Phase3 Telecom; Paul Thompson, managing director, AFL Swindon; Aliko Dangote, president and CEO, Dangote Industries Ltd; Steve Maederer, commercial manager, AFL Swindon; Boye Olusanya, managing director, Dancom Technologies.
AFL announced that it is supplying fiber optic cable and equipment to Nigeria's first open access fiber optic backbone network. Nigeria's National Broadband Carrier Network Project includes 14,000 km of fiber optic network linked through regional network owners to enable advanced communications to all regions of the country.
Network owner, Dangote Industries Limited, is installing over 3,000 km of fiber optic cable supplied by AFL to link to this open access backbone which is operated by Dancom Technologies and will interconnect directly with Phase3 Telecom. The Dancom network construction incorporates AFL's SkyWrap solution, a fiber optic cable that is helically applied on existing ground or phase conductors using specially designed installation equipment.
"AFL is honoured to participate in such an important project that will directly impact the lives of the people of Nigeria. Given the difficult terrains, wetlands and environments of the Niger Delta region where part of this installation is located, SkyWrap was the perfect solution for this project," said Paul Thompson, managing director of AFL in Europe.
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Boye Olusanya, managing director of Dancom Technologies commented, "The lower eastern half of the project was completed last month and is now ready to carry commercial traffic. The SkyWrap solution has enabled this first stage of installation to be deployed quickly at an average rate of between 5 and 9 km per day with minimal disruption to existing power services. This solution was especially outstanding when we crossed a large 1.3 km span over the River Niger."
"AFL SkyWrap technology is allowing us to bring secure and reliable high bandwidth data services to many regions of Nigeria where capacity and quality of network services were very limited. When completed the Dancom and Phase3 network will be part of the only neutral open access national fiber backbone in Nigeria," added Aliko Dangote, president and CEO of Dangote Industries.
Stanley Jegede, CEO of Phase3 Telecom stated, "The deployment of Dancom network is a welcome development to the telecom industry in Nigeria as it helps to achieve a one-network objective that will enable transmission on a more secure right-of-way across the country."
For additional information on AFL and its cable products, visit www.AFLglobal.com.
