Fiber Optics: Backbone Project takes shape

The fibre optics has begun and the objective is to lay 916 km of fiber towards the Congo, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic to facilitate interconnection.

To this end, the routes concerned are Bertoua, Batouri-Kentzou to rally the Central African Republic, Sangmélima-Djoum-Mintom-Ntam to rally Congo and Kumba-Mamfe-Ekok for interconnection with Nigeria.

The Ndop-Kumbo-Bamenda route will loop this part of the National Backbone.

According to Cameroon Tribune on Tuesday, December 1, 2015, as at now, Cameroon has 6,000 km of optical fiber on the 10 000 km planned.

Access costs remain high and the internet connection is still very fluid. The overall cost of this second phase of Backbone project amounts to 49,354,000 Euros which is more than 32 billion FCFA. The funding is a loan from the African Development Bank (ADB) and about 6 billion FCFA was funded by the government.

A donation of 900 million FCFA was offered by the Fund for Global Environment. According to the newspaper, ADB's the contribution will be structured in 3 components.

The first terms of the environment will implement activities designed to preserve the sectoral environment. The second component, physics, will be to promote the development of fiber optic infrastructure to improve subregional connectivity and finally, the third component is to develop applications that promote good governance and the transparency.

MINPOSTEL however, recalled that the first phase of the project which started in 2009 will be completed in the first quarter of 2016.