Subscribe
About

Kenyan ADSL2 project under way

By Vanessa Haarhoff, ITWeb African correspondent
Johannesburg, 02 Jul 2007

East African data communications carrier Kenya Data Networks (KDN) is in "full swing", rolling out triple-play delivery architecture (TPSDA) with the intention of providing coverage for the entire country. This is according to Kai Wulff, CEO of KDN and manager of the project.

The three-year project will cost KDN$330 million and bring efficient high-speed Internet access to thousands of Kenyans, he adds.

KDN chose technology partner Alcatel-Lucent to provide the TPSDA network.

KDN held ADSL2 trials with Alcatel-Lucent and Siemens after it received a broadcast licence last year, which allows the carrier to offer triple-play services.

Subscribers will now be able to access triple-play services, including IPTV, from several content providers including DSTV, over a metro MPLS fibre infrastructure network, with ISAM ADSL2+ multi-service nodes, explains Wulff.

According to Alcatel-Lucent's Web site, the technology will allow KDN to carry multiple service types on its nationwide IP backbone, as well as traffic from international and domestic Internet service providers and other telecommunications service providers.

"The intention is to provide every Kenyan household with high-speed Internet connection on demand," says Wulff.

So far 18 000 recipients are hooked up via cable, he notes.

The roll-out will be the largest TPSDA deployment in the East African region, which will provide triple-play infrastructure to around 350 000 subscribers.

Wulff notes the fibre deployment by Alcatel-Lucent is already under way in Kenya, with other East African deployments beginning early next year in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.

Related story:
Kenya rolls out ADSL2 in $380m project

Share