06 February 2023

Dark Fiber Africa (DFA) and Bandwidth and Cloud Services Group (BCS) have completed the first stage of their long-haul fibre backbone project, which aims to provide better connectivity between Zimbabwean towns and cities by deploying fibre along the country’s national rail tracks.

In the first phase, 1,180km of fibre will stretch from Zimbabwe’s border town of Beitbridge in Matabeleland South province to the resort town of Victoria Falls in the north of the country. The network infrastructure cost $18 million.

The second phase, also expected to cost $18 million, will extend with an additional 800km from the village of Somabula to Harare via the city of Gweru. The infrastructure will also extend the network from the city of Bulawayo to Plumtree as well as from Harare to Mutare by the middle of 2023. Eventually, the project will have three additional stages that will see Zimbabwe interconnected with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique.

BCS has also partnered with National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) to use technology to dig and lay cables under the ground on the side of the railway line.

“The project underlines Zimbabwe’s commitment to improving people’s livelihoods in line with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area concept,” said Jenfan Muswere, Zimbabwe’s Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services minister.