Enhancing Connectivity: Seacom Launches New Nairobi-Kampala Terrestrial Network

Seacom has announced the launch of a high-capacity terrestrial network route between Nairobi and Kampala, a development that significantly boosts internet connectivity in East Africa. This new infrastructure strengthens one of the region's most vital digital corridors, providing reliable and efficient internet services to businesses.

The newly established route connects crucial hubs in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Kampala, creating a robust pathway for data traffic that moves inland from subsea cables landing in Mombasa. This upgrade transforms an existing corridor into a modern backbone capable of meeting the rising demand for data across East Africa.

At the outset, the Nairobi-Kampala route offers one terabit per second (Tbps) of capacity, with the potential to scale up to an impressive 30 Tbps. This scalability allows Seacom to quickly adapt to increasing demand without necessitating major redesigns or new infrastructure.

David Kariuki, Seacom's Chief Technology Officer, emphasised the importance of service availability. "By managing and controlling more of the route ourselves and incorporating automated switching, we can ensure uptime even if parts of the network experience interruptions," he stated. The route boasts latency of around seven milliseconds to Nairobi and 13 milliseconds to Mombasa, making it suitable for real-time applications such as financial transactions, cloud services, and enterprise functions.

Seacom highlighted that this corridor is crucial for various sectors, including telecommunications, financial services, cloud platforms, and digital commerce. As these industries expand, the demand for consistent, low-latency connectivity rises. The new network enhances access to international bandwidth, enabling faster and more reliable data transfer across the region.

Kariuki noted, "We are reinforcing a route that is already essential for regional connectivity. Our goal is to provide a high-capacity, carrier-grade network that meets the demands of today's digital economy."

Additionally, this route fosters regional integration by providing more efficient access to neighbouring markets such as Rwanda, Burundi, and South Sudan, thereby promoting cross-border digital services and trade.

This launch is part of Seacom's ongoing investment in East Africa's digital infrastructure, following previous upgrades to its Ugandan IP network to enhance capacity, performance, and service reliability. This ongoing effort aims to bolster networks across the region and meet the growing demand for cloud services and cross-border connectivity.