A 22km interconnected fibre optic network linking Cameroon and Gabon was recently launched in Meyo-Kye district, Gabon, by senior telecommunications ministers from both West African countries.
The infrastructure consists of a 96-strand G652 type fibre optic network laid underground, with a joint box located on the Campo or Ntem River Bridge, in the South Province of Cameroon on Cameroon’s borders with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
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The interconnection has been tested and reportedly, the availability of service rate stands at nearly 100 percent in accordance with ITU standards. It offers a capacity of approximately 100 Tbps, which is strong enough to manage e-learning, videoconferencing, e-commerce, telework, telemedicine, file transfer and other relatively high-data-rate applications.
According to Ngongeh Ayafor Clement, the technical director at Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel), all the necessary precautions have been taken to prevent vandalism on the infrastructure.
A part of the Central African Backbone (CAB) project
The construction of the fibre optic network linking Cameroon and Gabon stems from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed back on November 28 2019 in Libreville, the capital and largest city of Gabon, between Gabon and Cameroon.
The project is also a part of the broader Central African Backbone (CAB) project, which entails the construction of a fibre optic internet backbone to connect the countries of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) via high-speed internet.
The countries set to benefit from this project include Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Gabon, the Republic of Congo, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
The CAB project is being implemented in five phases, four of which are reportedly complete.
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