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Orange partners Smart Africa to boost digital traffic within the continent

09 Oct 2020, 02:50 pm
Financial Nigeria
Orange partners Smart Africa to boost digital traffic within the continent

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Orange is a platinum corporate member of Smart Africa. Other private sector members of the alliance include MTN and Huawei.


French telecoms giant, Orange, has announced a partnership with Smart Africa – an alliance of 30 African countries, international organisations and global private sector players – to enhance intra-African digital information and communication traffic. In support of Africa’s digital agenda, Orange said it has created new voice points of presence (POP) and a data clearing house for roaming traffic on the continent.

In a statement released on Friday, the telecoms giant said it has created two new international voice POPs located in Lagos, Nigeria. A POP is a local access point that connects to and helps Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other devices establish a connection with the internet. Orange said the new POPs will provide a range of services for African mobile operators, facilitating the routing of voice traffic across the continent.  

The Paris-based mobile operator also said it has created a data clearing house to host roaming data for its African customers. Last month, the company announced the creation of a new Internet Protocol (IP) POP in Accra, Ghana. Orange said it is part of its plan to deploy IP and Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) POPs to expand internet data network coverage in Africa.

The company said the new POPs and IP points of presence, will combine with the POPs of its 17 subsidiaries to provide local solutions to African operators for all voice, data and roaming services. Orange said its expansion plan supports the One Africa Network (OAN) project, which is also backed by Smart Africa. The project aims to reduce the cost of communication and keep the traffic generated from, and destined for, Africa within Africa.

“We value Orange’s commitment to strengthen Africa’s capacity to manage and retain her own data,” said Lacina Koné, Director General and CEO of Smart Africa. “This is important for ensuring universal access through cost savings and data sovereignty, which is a hallmark of our data policy.”

Orange is a platinum corporate member of Smart Africa. Other private sector members of the alliance include MTN and Huawei. International organisations in the network include World Bank, African Development Bank and International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The 30 Smart Africa member states include Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Cameroon and South Africa. Nigeria – which has the least affordable internet in the world and performs poorly in other indicators of digital wellbeing, according to the Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index 2020 developed by Surfshark, a British Virgin Islands-based – has not joined the alliance.
 
Orange believes its initiatives will help boost quality of service and data security for all users across the continent. The company said it is playing an important role in digital inclusion by allowing direct connections between African countries. In the latest World Bank Africa’s Pulse report released yesterday, the bank said Africa still lags behind other regions of the world in the digital economy.
 
Jérome Barré, CEO of Orange’s Wholesale and International Networks, said “Orange’s ambition is to keep all traffic and flows in Africa, in order to contribute to the development of the continent’s digital economy.”


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