Telecom Italia Sparkle, Dolphin Telecom alliance to expand connectivity across West Africa

TI Sparkle, the international services subsidiary of , and Dolphin Telecom have announce a new partnership to provide IP connectivity services across West Africa.[blockquote right=”pull-right”]Through the IP hubbing node in Accra, customers will be able to access the world’s most popular content hosted in Europe or in any of the multiple and dispersed point of presence of Sparkle Global IP transit backbone, in one of the key strategic drives of the partnership.[/blockquote]

Under the plan, a newly-established IP point of presence (POP) in Accra, Ghana will advance their vision of a new West African IP Gateway to offer protected and fast Tier 1 Internet connectivity across the sub-region, the companies announced today.

TI Sparkle and Dolphin Telecom will give cost effective, high quality and secure fully-protected global IP connectivity solutions to TLC operators, ISPs and service providers that are connected to Accra through major international cable systems, the companies said.

“Through the strategic relationship with a relevant player like Dolphin Telecom we are able to establish the first Tier 1 IP Gateway in West Africa and bring the Internet thousands of miles closer to customers in the Region with impressive improvement in terms of quality of experience and latency ” Elisabetta Ripa, CEO of TI Sparkle, says.

Through the IP hubbing node in Accra, customers will be able to reach the world’s most popular content hosted in Europe or in any of the multiple and dispersed point of presence of Sparkle Global IP transit backbone, in one of the key strategic drives of the partnership.

In addition, customers will be able to exchange their intra-regional traffic locally, instantly improving performance by saving hundreds of milliseconds with respect to any other European IP hub, they said.

“Our partnership with TI Sparkle is a proof of our commitment in bridging the internet divide in west Africa and a response to the increasing local demand for high quality and protected IP connectivity solutions following the recent development of the IT segment in the region”, Abdel Mageid Elzain, Managing Director of Dolphin Telecom, added.

Seabone is TI Sparkle Tier 1 fully IPv6 enabled global IP Transit backbone that ranks among top 5 in Europe and #1 in the Mediterranean.

While consolidating its global role, TI Sparkle says it is strengthening Seabone’s regional positioning globally and especially in Africa and Asia where it has reached leading positions.