Industry Telecommunications Headquarters Nairobi, Kenya Number of employees 50 | Founded 2007 Type of business Private. | |
Key people Chris Wood, CEO. Chipo Mtasa, Chairperson. Products Global connectivity, IP Transit, Metro Connect, ISP Transit ,Colocation | ||
Chris wood ceo west indian ocean cable company
West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) operates as a wholesaler, providing capacity to international, African telecos and internet service providers within and out of Africa. WIOCC offers carriers connectivity to over 500 locations across 30 African countries – utilising more than 55,000 km (34,000 mi) of terrestrial fibre and 40,000 km (25,000 mi) of submarine fibre-optic cable. WIOCC’s international network reach currently extends to 100 cities in 29 countries in Europe and more than 700 cities in 70 countries globally.
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The company was established in 2008 and is jointly owned by 14 major African telecom operators, with support from five international development financial institutions: International Finance Corporation (IFC), African Development Bank (AfDB), French Development Bank (AFD), German Development Bank (KfW) and European Investment Bank (EIB).
WIOCC’s CEO (from October 2008 – Present) is Chris Wood. WIOCC is registered in the Republic of Mauritius with offices in Nairobi, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Shareholders
WIOCC is a consortium company owned by 14 major African telcos. The shareholders are;
Network
WIOCC is the largest shareholder in EASSy, a >10Tbit/s capacity submarine fibre-optic cable system interconnecting nine countries along the eastern seaboard to the rest of the world. The cable landing points are:
Through strategic investments in two further major international submarine cables into Africa – Europe India Gateway with a design capacity of 3.84 Tbit/s connecting Africa's northern seaboard to Europe, the Middle East and India and West Africa Cable System WACS with a design capacity of 14.5 Tbit/s and the largest submarine cable on Africa's western seaboard linking South Africa with the United Kingdom - the overall WIOCC network forms a ‘ring’ around Africa, over which it provides end-to-end managed regional and international services the length of Africa’s eastern and western seaboards and into Europe and North Africa.
As well as serving Africa’s coastal regions, WIOCC’s terrestrial network links to these submarine fibre-optic cables and enables businesses and individuals in landlocked countries - such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda to take advantage of cost-effective international connectivity.