$100m for African broadband project CSquared
POLICY
To help develop in reliable internet access for cities across Africa, Google has created a four-way investment partnership with ICT investment companies Convergence Partners, Mitsui and International Finance Corporation (IFC) (part of the World Bank Group).
Marian Croak
VICE PRESIDENT OF ACCESS STRATEGY AND EMERGING MARKETS AT GOOGLE INC.
“Together with our new partners, we believe CSquared can roll out and operate affordable, high-speed, and reliable infrastructure to further expand internet access in Africa,” says Marian Croak, Google’s vice president for access strategy and emerging markets.
The wholesale broadband infrastructure project CSquared is an extension of Google’s Project Link. CSquared offers carrier-neutral, open-access and acts as a wholesale provider of high-speed fibre in sub-Saharan Africa. High-quality fibre networks are currently available Uganda (800km) and Ghana (840km), with dozens of ISPs and mobile networks offering a range of services. Liberia, one of the world’s least connected countries where only 5% of citizens have internet access, has also recently begun working with CSquared to bring affordable broadband infrastructure to the Liberian capital of Monrovia. Additional countries are planned for the future.
CSquared allows ISPs and MNOs to offer affordable high-quality broadband through shared infrastructure, such as metro fibre and Wi-Fi networks and will be run as an independent company.
Other projects Google has set up to improve coverage and extend internet connectivity to people in currently unnerved rural and remote areas of the world include Project Loon, a global network of super-pressured, solar powered high-altitude balloons.
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