Orange committed its support to the Smart Africa Alliance’s One Africa Network project pledging new investments in Africa, to upgrade quality of service and data security for customers in the continent.
In a statement, the operator group said it aimed to localise voice and roaming data hosting and transport in Africa, by creating two new international voice points of presence (PoP) in Lagos Nigeria, and host roaming data for customers in a new data clearing house.
“These PoP ensure a local connection to African and international content for its customers, as well as the exchange of roaming data,” said Orange, and enable it to “host and route all voice traffic in Africa between connected operators.”
Jerome Barre, Orange CEO of wholesale and international networks said: “With the creation of new voice points of presence and a data clearing house for roaming traffic in Africa, Orange is emphasising its position as a leader in international interconnection in Africa, as well as its ability to provide a local solution to African operators for all voice, data and roaming services. Orange’s ambition is to keep all traffic and flows in Africa, in order to contribute to the development of the continent’s digital economy.”
The creation of two new Voice Tier-1 PoPs enables a diverse range of services to all African mobile operators, allowing the routing of traffic across Africa, said Orange.
Roaming traffic will be hosted by a data clearing house in a data centre in Africa from January 1, 2021.
“We value Orange’s commitment to strengthen Africa’s capacity to manage and retain her own data. This is important for ensuring universal access through cost savings and data sovereignty which is a hallmark of our data policy.
"Therefore, this partnership with Orange goes a long way in operationalising these principles and making the One Africa Network a reality”, said Lacina Kone, Smart Africa Director General and CEO.