Laser Light and WIOCC Partner to Expand Connectivity in Africa
Laser Light Companies and WIOCC, Africa’s digital backbone, have signed a five-year $129 million (USD) master services agreement. As part of the terms, Laser Light will contract with WIOCC for capacity on terrestrial and subsea cables in and around Africa and support services. In turn, WIOCC will use Laser Light for its global connectivity needs beyond its current network footprint and bring the Laser Light service portfolio to its African clients.
The agreement will commence upon initial operations of the Laser Light networking platform expected to begin at the end of 2023 with Africa being part of its Beta Program roll-out in partnership with Nokia announced in June. Exact deployment details will be announced in the coming months.
Formed in 2008 and operating exclusively as a wholesaler, WIOCC is Africa’s carriers’ carrier, revolutionizing the delivery of high-capacity connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world. It provides tailored, end-to-end solutions between 30 African countries and key financial and commercial centres around the world. WIOCC’s shareholder and partner networks interconnect over 1,000 locations across 30+ African countries using more than 75,000km of terrestrial fibre-optic network and up to 200,000km of subsea systems.
Laser Light is currently deploying its innovative, elastic all-optical network across all service domains – land, sea, and space – operating as a fully converged platform. Customers of the platform will be able to self-provision where, when, and how much data they need across continents, countries and the Edge while only paying for the volume transported.
The opportunity to partner with Laser Light in bringing this transformational capability for businesses and consumers in Africa is a key stepping stone in implementing our vision to make an enduring contribution to Africa’s communications. The partnership also offers us the ability to flexibly extend reach beyond the current network footprint and to expand our existing solutions and infrastructure portfolio with new services and capabilities for our clients. This agreement enables us to do so in an accelerated and cost-effective way which is beneficial to our clients and shareholders alike.
Chris Wood, CEO, WIOCC Group
The demand for connectivity options in Africa is immense, and we are honored to have Africa’s leading carriers’ carrier as one of our founding launch customers. Given their extensive infrastructure, relationships, and history of innovative and reliable telecommunications solutions, WIOCC is the ideal partner to be able greatly expand and accelerate the reach of the Laser Light platform throughout the continent.
Bob Brumley, Chairman and CEO, Laser Light Companies
