Connecting people and companies across Africa and beyond

Djibouti Telecom is leveraging Ciena’s (NYSE: CIEN) GeoMesh Extreme solution to upgrade its DARE1 (Djibouti Africa Regional Express1) network to increase digitization in the East Africa region, which has been widely underserved when it comes to international connectivity.

Located on the northeast coast of the Horn of Africa, Djibouti is situated on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait—one of the world’s busiest shipping routes serving the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. The nation is a connectivity hub for East Africa, made possible by state-owned network provider Djibouti Telecom.

As part of a consortium of telecoms operators, Djibouti Telecom operates eight submarine cable systems, including DARE1, which crosses Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia. The 5,000 km network, which connects the countries to data centers and content providers around the world, offers businesses and citizens access to internet, mobile, and global cloud services. Faced with growing traffic driven by widespread remote work and learning, Djibouti Telecom set out with Ciena to upgrade DARE1.

“Submarine cable networks are our lifeline to the connected world, especially with more people relying on the internet than ever before,” said Mohamed Assoweh Bouh, General Manager of Djibouti Telecom. “The DARE1 upgrade lets us bring much-needed connectivity and content closer to more users, faster—priming our area for economic growth today and for years to come.”

Djibouti Telecom is deploying Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme submarine network solution, which utilizes the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform powered by the WaveLogic family, allowing a doubling of line rates to 400 Gbps. Spectrum Sharing capabilities enable the partitioning of submarine optical spectrum to different end users for more efficient use of undersea assets. The network is managed via Ciena’s Manage, Control and Plan (MCP) domain controller.

“Leveraging Ciena’s GeoMesh Extreme, Djibouti Telecom expands the capacity of DARE1 to make possible dynamic new 10G, 100G, and Spectrum Sharing services for an increasingly digital world,” said Ian Clarke, Vice President of Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena.

About Djibouti Telecom

Djibouti Telecom SA is Djibouti's main telecommunications company, providing landline, mobile, and internet services. The company is headquartered in Djibouti City. Djibouti Telecom was founded in 1999 and has established itself as a regional hub responsible for providing a comprehensive portfolio of voice, data/IP, and capacity services over a state-of-the-art network infrastructure that spans Europe, the Middle East, and East Africa. For more information, visit https://international.djiboutitelecom.dj/.

About Ciena

Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking systems, services and software company. We provide solutions that help our customers create the Adaptive Network™ in response to the constantly changing demands of their end-users. By delivering best-in-class networking technology through high-touch consultative relationships, we build the world’s most agile networks with automation, openness and scale. For updates on Ciena, follow us on Twitter @Ciena, LinkedIn, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit http://www.ciena.com/.

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