Pan African telecommunications provider, Internet Solutions, has announced a $15 million investment over the next three years to expand its network infrastructure in Ghana.
The first phase of deployment will be in Accra, with future phases in Kumasi, Takoradi, Cape Coast and a number of other commercial hubs.
The Minister of Communication, Dr Edward Omane-Boamah, has stated that information communication technology (ICT) remained an engine of growth that could propel the growth of the economy.
According to him, Ghana continued to be at the forefront of telecommunication and that the government together with the ministry is working around the clock to set up information centres to enhance ICT.
As the demand for more bandwidth continues to grow, the company’s state-of-the-art fibre optic network will have the required capacity to accommodate the growth.
“The expansion of our network enables Internet Solutions to meet the growing demand for data, and provision of more services for our enterprises and government clients, to deliver services to their customers and citizens”.
“We are all aware of the relationship between access to the Internet and economic growth. The deployment of this new network will enable us to bring more and more people and services online, which is vital to continued economic and social development for the country,” Mrs Yvette Adounvo Atekpe, Regional Managing Director of Internet Solutions Ghana pointed out.
The fibre optic network is fully compliant with the International Telecommunications Union standard (ITU-T SG15) for Fibre Optics build, and the Metro Ethernet Network Forum standards (MEF 2.0) compliance for Metro and Carrier Grade Ethernet networks.
Internet Solutions has partnered with Tejas Networks and Infratele Solutions Ghana Limited to build the Metro-Fibre Network. Under the terms of the contract, Infratele will build a Telecommunications Grade Metro Fibre network to span all the commercially viable areas in Accra.
Tejas Networks will install its world class flagship ME 2.0 Core Optical Transport equipment (TJ1600), which supports WDM, Carrier Ethernet, TDM in a single core in five Points-of-Presence (PoPs) in Accra allowing easy connectivity and termination to all organisations within the metropolis.
The network will complement the existing under sea cable systems by providing an access network equal to the task of disseminating the international capacity.
The network will have an initial capacity of 400 Gigabits per second (Gbps) in a self-healing fibre optic ring for resilience against network outages. It is also expandable to 3.2 Terabits per second (Tbps) with minimal additional investment,” said Mr. George Gabla, Technology Operations Manager of Internet Solutions Ghana.
“Our partnership with Internet Solutions opens up a world of opportunities as it breaks the communication barriers in Ghana and the rest of Africa. We are fully committed to the development of a world class infrastructure throughout Sub-Saharan Africa with Internet Solutions. We are proud that Internet Solutions selected us to deliver on such an important project,” Sanjay Nayak of CEO Tejas Networks Limited stated.