The telecommunication market in Africa is one of the fastest growing in the world. African telecom companies are investing to build up an Internet backbone to bring down the cost of bandwidth and make the Internet available to the majority of the population. Thanks to the flurry of activities, recent years have seen a bevy of MNCs entering the African telecom market. NTT (News - Alert), the global data arm of NTT Communications Corporation, is the latest addition to this list. NTT has been contracted by Africa’s key wholesale carrier, Liquid Telecom, to supply IP transit services. The partnership is expected to help Liquid to cope with the ever increasing bandwidth demands across the African market. Businesses in the region will benefit from greater IP phone performance and connectivity.

Boasting a fiber network that spans over 17,000 km across borders and covers Africa’s fastest-growing economies, Liquid Telecom is one of the key players in the African telecom market. As an independent provider of data, voice and IP services, Liquid Telecom has established a large presence across the countries in eastern, central and southern Africa. It caters to the region’s top mobile network operators, ISPs and financial institutions. Liquid’s service offerings include fiber optic, satellite and international carrier services.

According to the forecasts from research firms, Africa is going to lead the world in international bandwidth demand growth in the upcoming years. Andrew Alston, head of IP strategy at Liquid Telecom, maintains that the actual demands for IP capacity have exceeded the global forecasts. Liquid decided to address this growing demand through partnership. Under the partnership, NTT will provide Liquid with high-quality IP transit to and from the Global Internet across all continents.

“Demand for IP capacity on our pan-African fiber network continues to grow above and beyond global forecasts for Africa. NTT Com is a reliable supplier which will provide us with high-quality IP Transit to and from the Global Internet across all continents. Liquid Telecom shares NTT Com´s IPv6 pioneering vision, with IPv6 rolled out fully across our entire African Backbone,” Andrew Alston, head of IP strategy at Liquid Telecom, explained in a news statement.