Rolling out fibre optic in Ivory Coast
Côte d’Ivoire has launched a project to roll out very high-speed fibre optic broadband. The country wishes in particular to build a 7,000 km ‘information superhighway’ or ‘backbone’, the nerve centre of high-speed broadband.
The backbone, an information superhighway
As part of this project, Axians was chosen to install 1,920 km of fibre optic cables for the Ivorian National Agency of Universal Telecommunications Services (ANSUT), a State agency that reports to the Ivorian Ministry of Digital Economy and Post. Connection points will be installed along the fibre optic cables and a number of pylons will be built.
Moving towards digital governance
The Ivorian State will connect all prefectures and subprefectures in a bid to introduce e‑governance to enable people with either mobile or broadband Internet access to carry out administrative tasks remotely, such as taking part in the census, paying their taxes and electricity or water bills and applying for planning permission.
“It will connect remote villages with the rest of the country via information and communication technologies,” says Hicham Mghazli, the Axians manager for the project. The construction of pylons and antennas for mobile Internet will form the first stage of fibre optic operation. “Following that, urban loops will be installed, from which telecommunications operators will be able to offer FTTH, in other words very high-speed Internet service to the home.”