On Tuesday, November 10, the Orange group announced the launch of Djoliba, presented as the 1st pan-African backbone, during the AfricaTech Festival international fair. Thanks to this secure multinational network, Orange will be able to serve nearly 330 million inhabitants in 8 West African countries. This infrastructure should stimulate the local digital economy, while accelerating the region's connectivity with the rest of the world...

"BAFO", the acronym for "African Fiber Optic Backbone", announced in November 2019, is coming back under a new name. It was finally under the name of Djoliba, (the “Niger River” in the Mandinka language) that the West African backbone was launched last Tuesday. The infrastructure deployed by the Orange group is based on a terrestrial fiber optic network associated with submarine cables, to develop secure connectivity from the West of the continent to the international. It will also make it possible to meet the growing needs recorded for several years in the region. “The number of connected people is only 350 million out of 1.3 billion inhabitants in Africa, but this figure is growing rapidly. It is twenty times higher than fifteen years ago, even if the inequalities remain significant” underlined Alioune Ndiaye, the general manager of Orange Middle East and Africa, on November 10 at a press conference. "This backbone was completed in less than 2 years, which represents an achievement in view of the difficulties we have encountered," said Jérôme Barré, CEO of Orange Wholesale & International Networks, shortly afterwards. Djoliba benefits from a supervision center and currently covers Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. Operated by local teams based in Dakar who ensure its maintenance, Djoliba also has supervision teams in 24/7 mode from the United States, India and France and its marketing is ensured by the various partners of the consortium. ( SONATEL , Orange International Carriers, Orange Burkina Faso, Orange Mali and Orange Côte d'Ivoire ). Until now, there was no cross-border telecommunications network, so to provide a service between two capitals, operators had to integrate offers from different suppliers and interconnect several networks at border points. With more than 10,000 km of terrestrial fiber optic network, coupled with 10,000 km of submarine cable, Djoliba now offers very high speed offers (up to 100 Gbit/s) and 99.99% availablity. The backbone covers 16 points of presence with a network of 155 technical sites, and connects 300 points of presence in Europe, America and Asia. Finally, Djoliba relies on Orange's Tier 1 network which allows a "seamless connection" (without interruption) with the group's international networks. Through this very high-speed transmission, network customers will have access to the group's platforms and all the offers it offers on the continent (IP transit, mobile service platforms, hosting in Orange data centers in Africa, VPN, etc. ..). A backbone already in the expansion phase? “Orange actively participates in the development of underwater and terrestrial infrastructures, which enable the digital transformation of the African continent, by investing 1 billion euros each year. With Djoliba, local populations will be able to access health and education services even more easily, as well as the uses offered by cloud computing,” recalled Alioune Ndiaye last Tuesday. Indeed, the backbone reinforces the group's strategy which already supports many connectivity projects on the continent, from the ACE cable (the Africa Coast to Europe submarine cable will eventually connect 24 African countries and 400 million people) to Main One to Africa (7,000 km submarine cable linking Portugal to Nigeria), via the 2 Africa consortium made up in particular of Facebook , which is financing the construction of the longest submarine cable in the world over 37,000 km (with commissioning scheduled for 2024, the cable will circumnavigate Africa). Emmanuel Rochas, Managing Director of Orange International Carriers, returned to his "technical prowess", but also to the optimization of performance made possible by Djoliba. “We designed it using the most innovative technologies to guarantee a simpler, faster and more reliable customer experience. It is a single window to access a network covering eight countries with a single supplier, a single contact, a single offer, a single contract, a single invoice and finally, a single customer service. With Djoliba, there is no more wasted time thanks to optimized processes”, he underlined. In December 2019, the Group presented its new “Engage 2025” strategic plan, which put “social and environmental exemplarity” at the heart of its strategy. This orientation should be accompanied by a strengthening of the group's presence in regions with growth potential, placing data and artificial intelligence (AI) at the heart of its innovation model, and particularly in Africa, where it is already present in 18 countries and where it has more than 120 million customers. Djoliba is also called to grow according to Jérôme Barré. “We want to ensure that African connectivity is open to the rest of the world. It is important to maintain this principle of openness, either through an extension or through interconnections with other networks", he concludes, adding that the group was already considering extending the backbone to two new countries. .