CSquared Woezon Selects Pioneer to Aid Deployment of Google’s Equiano Cable Connecting Togo to South Africa and Portugal

March 29, 2022

CSquared Woezon Selects Pioneer to Aid Deployment of Google’s Equiano Cable Connecting Togo to South Africa and Portugal

HOBOKEN, N.J. and LOMÉ, Togo, March 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pioneer Consulting, the full-service submarine fiber optic telecommunications consulting and project management company, has been awarded a comprehensive technical and strategic consulting contract by CSquared to deploy the Togo Branch of Google’s Equiano Cable. CSquared and the Société d’Infrastructures Numériques (SIN), a Togolese state-owned telecommunications asset company, recently formed the CSquared Woezon joint venture to deliver enhanced digital infrastructure and connectivity to the Togolese community.

“We selected them because of their international expert personnel and their rich experience in submarine cable implementation from procurement through to completion. We’ve already benefited from their strategic insights and look forward to working alongside Pioneer throughout this project.”

The project enabled CSquared Woezon to land the Equiano cable earlier this month by building a branch into Togo offering up to one terabit per second of capacity between Portugal and South Africa. Pioneer Consulting has been providing general subsea consulting services to CSquared Woezon, initially focusing on the design, procurement, and implementation of the Cable Landing Station and the system’s transmission equipment. Pioneer Consulting is also assisting CSquared Woezon with the development of the necessary land-based infrastructure which was required to land Google’s Equiano cable, such as the beach manhole, the outside plant, and backhaul to Lomé. Having worked on recent projects with other West African countries, Pioneer Consulting brings regional insights as well as decades of experience implementing all phases of submarine cable projects.

Pioneer played a critical role in bridging the technical and commercial needs and telecom operation capabilities of CSquared and the national interests of SIN, ensuring that both parties can move forward in their missions to better the digital infrastructure of Togo.

“It’s an honor to be working with CSquared and SIN on this vital project,” said Gavin Tully, Managing Partner at Pioneer Consulting. “This is more than just another consulting engagement for Pioneer. CSquared Woezon is accelerating Togo’s telecommunications growth and bringing benefits to the entire nation. Pioneer is thrilled to play a role in its connectivity diversification.”

“We are very pleased to have Pioneer Consulting on board this pivotal endeavor,” said Lanre Kolade at CSquared. “We selected them because of their international expert personnel and their rich experience in submarine cable implementation from procurement through to completion. We’ve already benefited from their strategic insights and look forward to working alongside Pioneer throughout this project.”

Expected to be completed in 2022, this new branch off of Google’s Equiano cable is the latest and most advanced subsea fiber optic cable to connect to Togo, and brings with it connectivity diversity that will help achieve the Togo Digital 2025 Strategy.

About Pioneer Consulting
Pioneer Consulting offers a comprehensive set of services for the submarine fiber optic telecommunications system industry. The company provides clients with valuable technical and commercial insight into the challenging issues facing this unique industry. Recognizing the diverse nature of the submarine telecommunications marketplace, Pioneer Consulting has built a team of industry-leading experts who are able to work across traditional boundaries and provide businesses with the strategic intelligence and operational skills needed to make long-term business decisions and deliver results.

About CSquared Group
CSquared Group is a technology company, making commercially driven investments into broadband-enabling infrastructure throughout Africa. By investing in internet infrastructure and making it available to local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), CSquared helps bring high-quality broadband access to Africa’s major cities. CSquared currently owns and operates over 1,000 km of metropolitan fiber in Kampala and Entebbe in Uganda; more than 2000 km of metro and backbone fiber in Ghana: Accra, Tema, Kasoa, Kumasi & Takoradi; Over 200 km in Monrovia, Liberia; and more than 60km in Nairobi, Kenya, where its Headquarters are situated. CSquared is jointly owned by Google, Mitsui & Co (Japan), Convergence Partners (South Africa) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group).

About SIN
As an entity fully owned by the State and created in 2016, SIN holds strategic public telecommunication assets and ensures to establish viable partnerships for the operation, management and maintenance of the fiber optic infrastructure in its possession.

About CSquared Woezon
A public limited company, CSquared Woezon, a Joint Venture between CSquared (56%) and Société d’Informatique Numériques [SIN] (44%), will focus on acquiring, building, maintaining, operating and marketing a wholesale open-access network with both international and national fibre optic infrastructure. CSquared Woezon, will initially have 3 key components. The first of these is the landing of Google’s Equiano Submarine Cable in Lome [which was witnessed last week] and the construction of a Cable Landing Station [CLS]; the second is the commercialization of the eGouv Metro Fibre network in Lome; and the third is the operationalization of the CEB Fibre with connectivity into neighbouring countries, Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso.

Media Contact
Devin Yasi
Trevi Communications for Pioneer Consulting

Contact Pioneer Consulting

Telephone: +1 978 357 3605

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