26 October 2017 – Last night at a glittering ceremony held in London, The Sudatel Telecom Group picked up the award for Best African Project at the annual Global Carrier Awards
Over the past 13 years, the Global Carrier Awards has become the biggest and most prestigious awards event in the carrier community and celebrate excellence and innovation recognising the most exciting companies, projects and partnerships in today’s dynamic wholesale carrier industry.
With a record number of over 225 entries submitted for this year's awards, all categories were judged by an independent panel of telecoms analysts, industry experts and the senior editorial team of Capacity Media.
Sudatel won for its involvement in the planning, construction and financing of a new 1500km East-West fibre route in Central Africa, between Port Sudan and Ndjamena, the capital city of Chad. This link was long overdue and provides a new – and direct – route for traffic between East and West Africa.
Sudatel beat off strong competition from Angola Cables and Ooredoo Global Services to win the award. The other big African winner was Liquid Telecom which picked up the award for Best African Wholesale Carrier.
This is the second triumph for Sudatel at the Global Carrier Awards: its data centre in Khartoum was named as the Best African Project in 2015.
Tarig Hamza Zainelabdin, CEO of The Sudatel Telecom Group, said “It’s fantastic that our work has been recognised on the international stage. We will continue to invest and expand our networks as we are committed to improving people’s lives through the provision of quality and reliable telecom services.”
Given Sudan’s geographic location and the recent lifting of US sanctions, Sudatel will continue to play a major strategic role in connecting Africa and the Middle East to the rest of the world. The company will continue to invest heavily in its domestic and pan-African operations during 2018 as demand for high-quality telecom services across the region continues to grow.
For more information regarding the Global Carrier Awards 2017 including the full list of winners, please visit www.capacitymedia.com/Global-Carrier-Awards
About The Sudatel Telecom Group
Established in 1993, Sudatel provides both mobile and fixed (voice and data) services to businesses, residents and ISPs across North and West Africa, in addition to the provision of wholesale services to international carriers. Sudatel is partially owned by the Sudanese Government and listed on both the Khartoum and Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange markets.
Its operations comprise:
- Sudani - the domestic operator which provides 4G and 3G mobile and fixed broadband services to consumers and businesses in Sudan; mobile financial services, including the country’s first mobile money service, under the “Gorooshi” brand; and other digital services including an app store built specifically for consumers in North Africa for whom many international apps are not relevant, with local software developers encouraged to customise regional apps.
- Expresso Telecom Group - a parent to the pan-African operations which provides mobile voice and data services and other digital and mobile financial services to individuals and business customers in Senegal, Mauritania and Guinea Conakry. Expresso is serving a wide consumer base in its respective markets with key international corporate accounts including Google, The World Bank and Samsung.
- Infrastructure - Sudatel has built, and is continuously expanding, an extensive fiber optic network across Sudan, Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea Conakry and land-locked Chad and Ethiopia. Wireless broadband and satellite networks complement the fiber optic network by covering areas where fiber has not yet been laid.
- International Submarine cables - Sudatel Group is a consortium member and a key player in the implementation of four international submarine cables; Saudi Arabia Sudan (SAS1 and SAS2); Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), and East African Submarine Cable System (EASSY).
- An award-winning Data Centre - Opened in 2014, Sudatel’s Data Centre is the first purpose-built data centre in Northern Africa, built at a cost of US$45 million. It is a cornerstone in the company’s transformation into a full ICT player and covers some 14,000 square metres with four rooms, each with a capacity of 1000 servers.
- Sudatel Telecom Academy (Sudacad) – an academic arm dedicating to developing the education and skill levels of students and employees across Sudatel’s respective markets. It has been selected by the ITU as one of the six Centres of Excellence across the Arab region.
Source: Sudatel Press Release