FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 26, 2011
AFL Supplies Solution to First Open Access Fibre Backbone in Nigeria
Stage one complete for Niger Delta Network
AFL a leading global manufacturer of fibre optic cable to the electric utility market, is supplying fibre optic cable and equipment to Nigeria's first open access fibre optic backbone network. Nigeria's National Broadband Carrier Network Project includes 14,000km of fibre 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 3,000km of fibre optic cable supplied by AFL to link to this open access backbone which is operated by Dancom Technologies and will interconnect directly with Phase 3 Telecom. The Dancom network construction incorporates AFL's SkyWrap® solution, a fibre 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.
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 1.3km 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 Phase 3 network will be part of the only neutral open access national fibre backbone in Nigeria," added Aliko Dangote, president and CEO of Dangote Industries.
For additional information on AFL and its cable products, visit
www.AFLglobal.com.
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