The Guinean government is considering interconnecting the national fiber optic network with that of Côte d’Ivoire. The project was revealed by Rose Pola Pricemou, Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and Digital Economy, during the cabinet meeting on Monday, September 2.
In a recent statement, Mohamed Kourouma, Director General of the Société de gestion et d’exploitation du backbone national (SOGEB), said it is essential for Guinea to collaborate with neighboring countries to strengthen the reliability of its international connectivity. The latter mainly depends on the single ACE submarine cable to which the country has been connected since 2014. Côte d’Ivoire, for its part, is connected to six different international submarine cables, according to the Submarine Cable Map platform.
The announcement of the fiber optic interconnection project with Côte d’Ivoire comes as the Guinean government is working on finalizing the framework agreement for a similar interconnection with Sierra Leone. An agreement was also signed last June to interconnect Guinea’s fiber optic network with that of Mali.
According to the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Digital Economy, interconnecting Guinea with neighboring countries should notably improve access to the Internet, strengthen network coverage and reduce communication costs in the country. It should also “ improve the daily lives of Guineans by reducing the digital divide, facilitating access to education and online health and creating an environment conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship .”
As a reminder, Guinea had 7.7 million Internet subscriptions as of December 31, 2023, according to statistics from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT). This represents a penetration rate of 56.27%.
Source: https://extensia.tech/guinea-considers-fiber-interconnection-with-ivory-coast/