Cameroon, Chad Merge Networks
The Republic of Cameroon has been urged to continue supporting the gradual implantation of the optical fibre network in the Republic of Chad so as to en able the latter’s population gain quicker access to hi-speed internet service to spur socio-economic development.
The call was made last Friday, December 30 in Yaoundé, by the Director General of the Chadian Transmission of Electric Communication Infrastructure Company, SITCOM-Chad, Haroun Mahamat Badaouy. This was during the signing ceremony of a commercial and technical agreement between SITCOM-Chad and Camtel on the interconnection of their terrestrial optical fibre transmission networks. The agreement has a objective, on one hand to link SITCOM-Chad’s optical fibre network to the submarine optical fibre system, SAT-3, currently managed by CAMTEL as well as to mutually share maintenance platforms so as to secure their respective networks. It will also give Chad hi-speed internet capable of facilitating modern internet services transmitting voice, data and pictures while giving her access, for the first time, to international network by land instead of by satellite. Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Director General of CAMTEL, David NKOTO Emane, thanked the Chadian partners for trusting CAMTEL’s expertise and promised that the agreement will bring a fruitful partnership between both countries especially as a followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Chad and Cameroon the previous day Thursday, December 29 on the occasion of the official visit by the Chadian President, Idriss Deby Itno, to Cameroon. Also speaking during the ceremony, the Ambassador of the republic of Chad to Cameroon, Yoosem-Kontou Noudjamlo, as well Cameroon’s Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, hailed the leaders of both of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, to see all member countries interconnected by optical fibre network. This was during the N’Djamena, Chad Summit of April 25, 2007. “With the commitment of our leaders, telecommunication will be a vector of sub-regional integration,” said Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam.
Cameroon has been described as the forerunner of optical technology in the Central African sub-region with its 5,000km network laid around the country and first optical fibre loop installed in the city of Douala. After hooking unto the SAT-3 submarine cable on its Atlantic coast, plans are underway to loop unto other available optical fibre submarine cables such as the West African Cable System, WACS, whose landing point is in Limbe and the African Coast to Europe, ACE, with landing point in Kribi.
Source: Cameroon Tribune