By Sylvester Samba.
Zoodlabs, the private company now responsible for the operations, management and commercialization of Sierra Leone’s ‘Subsea Fibre Optic Infrastructure’ has disclosed that they will be deploying a second Submarine Cable worth US$36 million before the end of 2023/24.
This disclosure was made to the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) while on a conducted tour of the submarine landing station at Aberdeen.
Before the tour, the Parliamentarians were exclusively briefed on the operations of Zoodlabs in the past three months. “We will be making a significant investment to continuously modernize the network, deploy additional hyper-scale and open access infrastructure that will be a significant enabler in supporting our clients (mobile operators and internet Service Providers) to bridge the digital divide… We believe connectivity and access to the internet should not be a privilege but a fundamental human right”, said David Kpakima, Zoodlabs’ Chief Operating Officer.
Kpakima added that the subsea network will be integrated to up-scale the current network to the first hyper-scale subsea network in the Mano River Union belt, positioning Sierra Leone as the hub for content and international connectivity.
Highlighting some of their accomplishments in the first 90 days of operations, Zoodlabs’ Chief Operating Officer noted that his institution has reduced the wholesale internet pricing by more than 50%. “Since the commencement of the transition on the 3rd of December 2020, Zoodlabs has contributed a total of Le7.3 billion from December 2020 to Feb 2021) of which Le2.9 billion is directly related to Sierra Leone Cable (SALCAB) staff salaries, and Le4.3 billion relating to outstanding suppliers’ payment and Terrestrial Network Support.
The Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zoodlabs, Davar Fazaeli assured the Parliamentary Committee on ICT that they are very proud of what they have done with in this short time of operating in the country.
