Global Connectivity: World Regions
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Americas
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Africa & the Middle East
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Asia & Pacific
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Sub-Saharan Africa
The UbuntuNet AllianceThe UbuntuNet Alliance is a regional association of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa. It was established in the latter half of 2005 by five established and emerging NRENs in Eastern and Southern Africa and now has a total of 14 NREN members:
The UbuntuNet Alliance connects from the UbuntuNet London and Amsterdam routers to GÉANT through a 10Gbps for IP traffic and a 10Gbps link for dedicated point-to-point circuits. The 10Gbps provides for increasing traffic from the UbuntuNet Alliance, with NRENs of Kenya (KENET), Mozambique (MoRENet), Rwanda (RwEdNet), South Africa (TENET), Tanzania (TERNET), Uganda (RENU) and Zambia (ZAMREN) currently connected. eVLBI traffic from the Hartebeestoek Observatory in South Africa is one of the beneficiaries of the new point-to-point connectivity. The UbuntuNet Alliance is one of the partners for the AfricaConnect project which aims to procure, implement and operate a regional R&E network in Southern and Eastern Africa. To learn more about the UbuntuNet Alliance, visit the UbuntuNet Alliance website.
AfricaConnectThe AfricaConnect project is part of the Africa Caribbean Pacific Islands (ACP) programme which aims to procure, implement and operate an R&E network in the region, adding to the connectivity already provided by the UbuntuNet Network, interlinking existing NRENs in Southern and Eastern Africa and provide additional connectivity between the region and GÉANT. The project has a total budget of €14.75m with 80% of funding provided by the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office, and the remainder contributed by the African partners in the project. AfricaConnect is coordinated by DANTE and partnered by DANTE’s regional counterpart organisations in Africa. These are UbuntuNet Alliance, which covers Eastern and Southern Africa, and WACREN, which covers Western and Central Africa. Other partners in the project are the Association of African Universities, existing National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa (DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia), and several European NRENs (Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK). DANTE and the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office announced the signature of the AfricaConnect contract on 11th May 2011. The project lasts four years and comprises two phases: the first is the planning and procurement of the network; the second is the operational phase. |
