14 February 2022
The Senegal Horn of Africa Regional Express (SHARE) submarine system linking the west African national with the Cape Verde archipelago has been completed, said HMN Technologies, the company behind the project.
Funded by the Senegalese state and operated by L’Agence de l’informatique de l’Etat (ADIE), the 720-kilometre-long telecom infrastructure, with a total capacity of 16 terabits, links the cities of Dakar and Praia. It will be officially commissioned in the first quarter of the year and will contribute to the exchange of information between the two countries.
Cheikh Bakhoum, president and chief executive officer of ADIE, said that “the SHARE cable, the first submarine optical cable entirely owned by the Senegalese state, offers a great strategic opportunity for Senegal and the west African region to have more Internet capacity and better resilience”.
HMN Technologies, formerly known as Huawei Marine Networks, specialises in the provision of advanced turnkey submarine network solutions. It has been deploying the SHARE cable since May 2020. The project is viewed as an essential pillar for the success of the Smart Senegal project, a key component of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE), which is the benchmark for the Senegalese government’s medium- and long-term economic and social growth strategy for 2035.
The Smart Senegal program aims to deploy network and telecom infrastructures and to set up technological platforms in order to significantly contribute to improving the living conditions of the population through greater security in cities and access to education, health and public information in all of Senegal’s communes. It also aims to support the economic development of Senegal in the priority sectors of the Emerging Senegal Plan (tourism, agriculture, mining, education, etc.).
Bakhoum added that “ADIE, by operating a low latency, high quality and high-capacity optical submarine cable, is ready to provide network operators and Internet service providers with sufficient Internet bandwidth, which can benefit both local residents and businesses to stimulate the development of the digital economy.
