KDN, Alcatel-Lucent connect East Africa

PARIS: Alcatel-Lucent and Kenya Data Networks (KDN), a communications carrier in Kenya, have signed a three-year frame agreement valued at €15 million. The agreement covers the supply, integration, installation and deployment for Alcatel-Lucent's optical networking and optical switching solutions for KDN's transport network across Kenya and neighbouring countries in East Africa.

The new DWDM network is meant to increase the capacity, efficiency and intelligence of KDN's existing infrastructure to deliver advanced services to its end-users and also increase its bandwidth offering for Kenya's transit traffic.

The deployment of the Alcatel-Lucent solution will start from Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city, to Nairobi, and will then extend to the major links connecting Kenya with neighboring countries. By providing data transport capacity and traffic aggregation capabilities, the optical network will connect Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia. The network will also provide the backhaul capacity needed to transport the bandwidth made available by submarine cable networks in the region.