Business Development Science and Technology

Liquid Telecom to Establish Multi-Billion Rand 4G Network in South Africa

Liquid Telecom

Liquid Telecom South Africa to provide wholesale open access roaming services to network operators starting early 2019

Liquid Telecom South Africa, part of the leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom, today announced that it will establish a multi-billion Rand 4G network in South Africa. From early 2019, wholesale roaming services will be made available across Liquid Telecom’s network nationwide.

According to Liquid Telecom South Africa CEO, Reshaad Sha: “This is an exciting development which will enable us to provide Mobile Network Operators and ISPs with open access to our mobile 4G network. Using our 1800MHz spectrum, the network will handle 4G mobile data traffic to meet the needs of the most demanding users across the country.”

Liquid Telecom, which acquired Neotel from Tata Communications in February 2017, has been investing heavily across the continent where it operates Africa’s largest independent fibre network that is almost 70,000km in length and linked to more than 600 towns and cities in 13 countries. This includes the recent completion of Liquid Telecom’s award winning ‘Cape to Cairo’ network which represents the first direct land-based terrestrial fibre link from Cape Town to Cairo.

“This milestone builds on a remarkable year for Liquid Telecom. I am encouraged that the momentum will continue into 2019 with South African operators having access to wholesale roaming services across our network for the first time.”

Said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO of Liquid Telecom. “Our announcement today, caps a busy and successful year which includes our recent announcement of a $180m investment in Liquid Telecom by CDC Group Plc, the UK’s development finance institution. This will enable us to expand our broadband connectivity to some of the most underserved communities across the African continent.”

In December Liquid Telecom also reached an agreement with Telecom Egypt to invest $400m in Egypt over the next three years as a leading connectivity and cloud solutions provider for the first time in North Africa, serving businesses in the region with a world-class network and data centre services.

About Liquid Telecom

Liquid Telecom is a leading communications solutions provider across 13 countries primarily in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa that serves mobile operators, carriers, enterprise, media and content companies and retail customers with high-speed, reliable connectivity, hosting and co-location and digital services.

It has built Africa’s largest independent fibre network, approaching 70,000km, and operates state-of-the-art data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi, with a combined potential 19,000 square metres of rack space and 80MW of power.

This is in addition to offering leading cloud-based services, such as Microsoft Office365, Microsoft Azure and innovative digital content provision including Netflix and Kwesé TV across our fibre footprint.

Through this combined offering Liquid Telecom is enhancing customers experience on their digital journey www.liquidtelecom.com

About the author

Byron Adonis Mutingwende