CSquared launches 350 km open-access fiber optic network to improve Internet access in Liberia

January 29th 2024

Africa, Fibre Network, ICT News, Kenya

Kenyan company CSquared announced on Wednesday, January 24, that it has completed the construction of a 350 km fiber optic backbone in Liberia, in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The infrastructure is expected to help expand internet connectivity to an additional one million people, or about 20% of the population.

The new network passes through more than 13 towns in Margibi, Bong and Nimba counties, while connecting Monrovia to the borders of Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea. The infrastructure is Liberia’s first open fibre optic backbone. It uses part of the utility infrastructure of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC).

“CSquared’s open-access fiber backbone and the capacity it will provide to last-mile service providers along its journey are critical to advancing a diverse and competitive digital ecosystem in Liberia – one that can make the Internet more affordable, accessible, and secure for all,” said Jim Wright, USAID Mission Director.

It was in November 2022 that U.S. President Joe Biden announced that his government was working with CSquared to set up a national fiber optic network in Liberia as part of the U.S. Digital Investment blended finance program. The announcement was made at the meeting of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) launched in June 2022 by G7 leaders to finance infrastructure in developing countries. An investment of USD 600 billion is planned over five years.

The new backbone strengthens CSquared’s network, which already had more than 300 km of open-access metropolitan fiber in Monrovia and Montserrado. It also strengthens Liberia’s national telecoms infrastructure by providing critical redundancy to the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable, which is currently the country’s only source of international bandwidth. This comes amid accelerated digital transformation marked by growing demand for high-speed connectivity, but low adoption of internet services.

The country had 1.8 million internet subscribers at the beginning of 2023, according to data platform DataReportal. This represents a penetration rate of 33.6% for a population of 5.36 million.

Source: Agency EcoFin

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