Africa, Cameroun:  Cameroun will soon enjoy the benefits of a telecoms spinal cord carried in a backbone stretching right down the country.

Twelve fibre optic cables will bring all the benefits normally associated with this technology, but stretching from north to south along the length of Cameroun. Protecting the fibre optic spinal cord will be a national (and metallic) backbone: for the fibre optics will be laid alongside Cameroun’s energy backbone - the Chad-Cameroun oil pipeline.

Ministers and executives representing the country’s telecoms and energy ministry, as well as COTCO (Cameroon Oil Transportation Company), met at the capital city Yaounde to sign the contract. The twelve optic fibres will be enclosed within a cable buried alongside the pipeline. In turn, the people of Cameroun will enjoy the benefits of the fibre optics thanks to a series of 14 “branch lines” leaving the main structure in five of the country’s ten provinces. These branches run off an axis from Kribi in the south to Dompta in the north. They comprise Kribi itself plus: Lolodorf, Ngoumou, Yaoundé (Mbankomo), Yaoundé (Zamengoé), Obala, Nkoteng, Nanga-Eboko, Belabo, Goyoum, Mabele, Meidougou, Gangui and Nana.

The four key parameters behind this particular choice of locations are: technical constraints, commercial viability, and the opportunity to link the cable both to Cameroun‘s neighbours and to the SAT3 international submarine cable. Substantial testing has shown that the fibre optic cabling is more than adequate for its duties.