Alcatel-Lucent to Build Ghana a Network

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU, news, filings) said this morning that it will be building a network for Ghana’s National Information Technology Agency and its e-Ghana project. The buildout consists of a new 600km fiber backbone, a national state-of-the-art data center facility to support it, and three years of network management starting in November 2012.

The network will link Ghana’s north and south, bringing in connectivity to the submarine cable landing stations via the country’s eastern cooridor. It will use Alcatel’s 100Gbps-capable 1830 Photonic Service Switch in its core. At higher layers, Alcatel-Lucent will implement voice, email, and other data services.  I doubt they’re going to need 100G real soon, but you never know I guess.  Still looking for a map of the project – I need to go back and look for more fiber maps in Africa as a whole actually.

They’ll work with local provider IPMC on buidling the data center, which will use server and storage gear from HP, a Genesys helpdesk solution, a performance rating platform, and e-learning systems from Saba.  The overall project is an ambitious one that’s getting funding from the World Bank and from the Danish International Development Agency.  After three years of operating it and training NITA personnel, they’ll turn it over to the locals.

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Categories: Datacenter · Fiber Networks · Telecom Equipment