10th March 2021 – Under the leadership of the Djibouti Ministry of Communications, Post and Telecommunications, Djibouti Telecom and Somtel have decided to include Hormuud Telecom as a new member and signatory of DARE1 Construction and Maintenance Agreement (C&MA). This cable is a new model of partnership and economic integration among the regional telecom operators and provides a new direct highway from Djibouti, Bosaso, Puntland and Mogadishu all the way to Mombasa, Kenya. This is the first stage of the venture, and further locations will be included in the future.
DARE1 is a new low-latency cable system with the purpose of bringing content closer to end-users in Africa, providing the region with much needed internet capacity and access to global cloud services. The cable is carrying 36 Tbps Capacity and will connect East Africa and beyond to the cable stations, datacenters and content providers in the world. This is the largest cable ever built in the region in terms of capacity.
‘Stemming from the leadership of our president His Excellency Ismael Omar Guelleh, this is another milestone for our government strategy of making Djibouti a hub for international cable systems.’ said Minister HE. Radwan Abdillahi Bahdon. He continued by stating that landing and hosting over eight cables in Djibouti has given the country the valuable accolade of being the most connected country and a technology hub for Sub Saharan Africa.
Djibouti Telecom Director General, Mr. Mohamed Assoweh Bouh stated: “We are very pleased that DARE1 has been completed on time despite the challenges and global restrictions caused by Covid-19. We very much understand the importance of bringing increased connectivity to Eastern Africa.”
The DARE1 cable system will improve the connectivity costs in Africa and add much needed capacity to this under-served and fast-growing region. The CEO of Somtel South, Mr. Abdirahman Isak, and the CEO of Somtel Puntland, Mr. Mohamed Muuse, jointly remarked ‘Somtel telecommunications company, its data services and eDahab mobile payments have been providing excellent services to our clients providing many people access to financial services and data. This allowed us to be the first investors with Djibouti Telecom on DARE1 which successfully enabled reliable, cost effective data for the region. Somtel promotes competition and interconnectivity for all telecom services, both voice and data, as this is best for consumers. In that spirit, we welcome Hormuud and other like-minded companies to the DARE1 consortium. Somtel will continue to provide unrivalled services to its customers in a region that needs reliable data.’
The CEO of Hormuud Telecom, Mr. Ahmed Yusuf, added by saying “This project is the first of its kind, where we will benefit from Djibouti Telecom’s international network stretching around the globe to bring tremendous change in the region as access to high quality and affordable Internet services affects all aspects of peoples’ lives and their way of thinking”. Mr Yusuf added “This new partnership and infrastructure sharing this cable has brought us will promote further collaboration for Telecom operators in Somalia”.
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About Djibouti Telecom
Djibouti Telecom SA is the primary telecommunications company of Djibouti, providing landline, mobile and Internet services. The company is headquartered in Djibouti City, Djibouti. Djibouti Telecom was founded in 1999 and has ever since established itself as a regional hub responsible for delivering a complete portfolio of voice, data/IP and capacity services over state-of-the-art network infrastructure that reaches out to eastern and southern Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Djibouti Telecom is now the leading strategic hub for international telecommunications services in East Africa and host eight international cables.
Visit: https://international.djiboutitelecom.dj
About Somtel LTD
Somtel is one of the leading telecommunications companies in the region, providing landline, mobile and internet services. Somtel was the first operator to launch 3G, 4G and LTE networks in the region. Somtel has also transformed the financial system by working with eDahab (mobile money) network, enhancing financial inclusion. Somtel is also one of the biggest employers in the region.
Somtel Somalia opened shares and have disbursed dividends each year since. With the success of Somtel Somali’s IPO, Somtel Puntland and Somtel Somaliland will launch an IPO in March 2021.
Somtel was one of the founders and principal shareholders of the DARE1 cable system.
To facilitate its mobile data strategy, Somtel was the first telecom to introduce an all IP transmission network more than 10 years ago. In addition, Somtel, together with its sister company Dahabshil Bank International (DBI), introduced the first and only short term interest free micro-loans and 3/6/12 month mobile money based saving plans.
As a trusted partner of the Somali people for more than 50 years, Somtel will continue strengthening its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy to ensure Somali lives are enriched, educated, empowered, nourished and protected. During these challenging times as a result of covid-19, Somtel’s CSR initiatives have been prioritized and will continue playing a key role in its strategic planning. In light of this, Somtel has just kicked off a new oxygen factory to ensure hospitals will have enough oxygen tanks to care for patients during the covid surges.
Visit: www.somtelnetwork.net
About Hormuud Telecom
Founded in 2002, Hormuud is the leading telecom company in Somalia providing a total communications solutions for the South and Central Somalia. A private company owned by Somali investors, Hormuud is the most innovative and transformative telecom operator in the country with end-to-end communication solutions serving home, mobile, enterprises and business customers.
Hormuud Telecom is the first company that introduced GSM, Mobile Money and Internet services in Somalia and is a huge contributor to the economic development of Somalia by providing services to other sectors and creating employment opportunities for youth.
Hormuud Telecom established a Corporate Social Responsibility arm called Hormuud Salaam Foundation to channel its philanthropic activities. In that endeavor, the Foundation built the first school for the Blind, established the first dialysis center in Somalia and created annual University Scholarships for the youth.
Our strategy is a “connected Somalia” where we are heavily investing the in the submarine cable systems for connecting our trading nation to the rest of the world in a fast, reliable and cost-effective manner.
Visit: www.hormuud.com
| For Djibouti Telecom: Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed +253 21 35 67 37 mohamed_ahmedmed@intnet.dj | For Somtel: Abdirahman Isak +252 62 1111774 abdirahman.isak@somtelnetwork.net | For Hormuud: Saed Guled +252 634422003 saed_guled@hormuud.com |