18 June 2021

The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and broadband infrastructure provider CSquared have made an agreement that will involve leasing of the former’s excess fibre capacity to mobile network operators and internet service providers in the west African nation.

According to local reports, the agreement will enable the deployment of broadband infrastructure to deliver high-speed data services to businesses and homes, with a particular focus on remote areas.

Jonathan Amoako-Baah chief executive of GRIDCo said the partnership provides an attractive alternative revenue source for GRIDCo and gives CSquared new opportunities to drive its digital transformation in the west African market.

CSquared, started as a project within Silicon Valley giant Google in 2011, aimed from an early stage to build metropolitan fibre optic networks, which would be leased by operators and ISPs on a wholesale model and to act as a neutral operator of shared infrastructures.

The long-term vision for Google was to increase internet penetration in sub-Saharan Africa and also to reduce internet access costs.

Now independent of Google, CSquared currently owns and operates over 890 km of metropolitan fibre in Kampala and Entebbe in Uganda; more than 1070 km of fibre in three cities in Ghana; and 180 km in Monrovia, Liberia.

For the Ghana project CSquared plans to deliver customer and technical support, network security and last-mile connectivity to ensure safer and faster experience to customers and, of course, to improve internet broadband access and enhance internet affordability in line with the government’s digitisation agenda.