By Alusine Sesay
Guinean and Sierra Leonean representatives in discussion in Conaky, Guinea
A team from the National Communications Authority (NatCA) led by the Director General Mr. Amara Brewah was in Guinea Conakry over the weekend to establish a Memorandum of Understanding on the interconnection between Guinea and Sierra Leone for Internet redundant route (backup/alternative route) through the terrestrial fiber backbone.
The agreement would enhance Internet connectivity by creating a backup to ACE cable which is managed by the infrastructure company Zoodlabs.
Sierra Leone is facing internet outages due to the aging ACE submarine cable which was laid in 2012.
Like so many countries, Sierra Leone relies on the ACE submarine cable which runs from Europe right down the West Coast of Africa to South Africa. The cable connects more than 455 million people in more than a dozen countries. Problems in the corridor can affect any other country along the line. Sierra Leone has only one Ace submarine cable, running from Paris, and Lisbon right down to Cape Town.
Earlier, the Minister of Communications Technology and Innovation, Salima Bah said that the government’s goal is to make sure this doesn’t happen. As a solution, Minister Bah has already met with her Guinean counterparts to find a mutual solution, which will be an “Emergency Bandwidth”.
She said that she led a delegation of sector players to Guinea, recently, and “we want to create an interconnection with them so if we are down, we can get some bandwidth from them and the same goes vice versa when Guinea is down”.
Madam Bah also justified why Guinea is a smart option for a plan like this. “Why Guinea is important is because Guinea is one of our neighboring countries and this is only possible with them. In addition, Guinea has six more options because of the multiple borders it shares with different countries. So, whenever we are down, we can benefit from Guinea because they have multiple options.”
While finding a quick fix, Madam Bah said the country is also working towards a long-term sustainable solution.
“Ultimately for true protection and to limit our vulnerability, we need two cables at any given time. The private sector is forming a consortium, looking at Meta 2 Africa cable. On the government level we are working with ECOWAS, they have a program to support countries with one undersea internet cable.”