Strive Masiyiwa inks Cape to Cairo fibre network deal

Telecom Egypt has signed a memorandum of understanding with Liquid Telecom to enable the pan-African group to complete Africa's terrestrial fibre network stretching across the African continent, the companies said on Saturday.

Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Strive Masiyiwa's Econet Wireless Global, has been building a fibre network across southern Africa covering Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It also has a presence in Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

"Liquid Telecom will link its network from Sudan into Telecom Egypt's network via a new cross-border interconnection – bringing together a 60 000 km network that runs from Cape Town, through all the Southern, Central and Eastern African countries, and has now reached the border between Sudan and Egypt," the two companies said in a statement.

They did not provide a time frame for the completion of the network or any estimate of the cost.

"Completing our vision of building a single network running on land, all the way from Cape to Cairo is a historic moment for the company and for a more connected Africa," Strive Masiyiwa, founder and executive chairman of Econet, said in the statement.