SEACOM has moved to strengthen its pan-African presence with the direct deployment of two Points of Presence (PoPs) in Uganda.

With the Uganda Communications Commission giving its clearance to SEACOM Uganda Ltd by issuing the Public Infrastructure Provider licenses, SEACOM will offer a full array of telecom services in Uganda and unleash their associated benefits to Ugandan network operators and service providers.

The deployment of the PoPs will further enable onward access to other neighbouring countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.

Byron Clatterbuck, Chief Commercial Officer at SEACOM, expressed his delight at the progress of the company’s strategy for East Africa with the launch into the Ugandan market.

“Our new license allows us to own and operate our network all the way between Kampala and our international network.  This will help bring more global connectivity to Uganda while improving the quality of the broadband experience for Ugandans,” said Clatterbuck.

To enable service provision in Kampala and the Kampala metro, SEACOM Uganda will deploy one of the Points of Presence (PoPs) within the capital at Airtel House and the other location is to be confirmed shortly. These PoPs will be directly connected through ring-switched backhaul links through Nairobi to Mombasa and then on to the SEACOM international subsea cable network.

Through these connections, Uganda will have more direct and resilient access to global communications interconnection points and the global Internet.  SEACOM’s IP network offers global connectivity to Europe and Asia, interconnection to multiple Tier-1 network operators, as well as more and more African-hosted content.

The deployment of the two PoPs will improve Internet access for Ugandans by 50 per cent, enabling users to access popular content such as video, music and software updates through SEACOM’s partnerships with global content development networks such as Level 3, Akamai and others.

Furthermore, Ugandan service providers will now also be able to use SEACOM’s remote peering service. This product provides access to more than 1,100 members of exchanges such AMS-IX, LINX, FRANCE-IX and NAP Africa through a single port solution on the SEACOM network. The result is that Ugandan operators will be able grow and optimize their networks more efficiently.

“Ugandan operators and service providers will benefit from our highly resilient and redundant submarine cables with immediate effect,” Clatterbuck added. “They will be able to rapidly activate services and upgrades through our flexible and scalable network platforms. The result will be a better quality of service for their end-customers.”