African telecoms group Liquid Telecom announced that it is investing USD 400 million in Egypt over the next three years. Under the first track of an MoU, Telecom Egypt and Liquid Telecom subsidiary Africa Data Centres will start a joint venture to build and operate new data centre facilities in Egypt. Telecom Egypt will contribute its local expertise, telecom services and land to establish the centres.
Telecom Egypt and Liquid Telecom will cooperate to develop a business model for the remaining two tracks of the MoU. Liquid Telecom intends to invest a total of USD 400 million in Egypt on all these initiatives. This is a result of the government of Egypt’s new Investment Law, which encourages Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the telecom sector.
Following an initial investment of USD 50 million in data centres and cloud services, Liquid Telecom plans to spend another USD 350 million in broadband and financial inclusion initiatives, as well as high capacity data centres. These will be similar to some of the best-in-class data centres in South Africa.
Liquid Telecom's expanding network is almost 70,000 km in length and is linked to more than 600 towns and cities in thirteen countries throughout Africa. It is part of the wider 'One Africa' broadband network that has been strongly supported by the African Union leadership.
President El-Sisi welcomed the development as a major milestone in connecting the African continent with Egypt and said he would continue to push the initiative during his tenure next year as Chair of the AU's 54 nation body. This follows the signing of an agreement with Telecom Egypt to mark the completion of Liquid Telecom’s award winning 'Cape to Cairo', the first direct, terrestrial fibre link between the two cities.
