Laser Light and WIOCC Sign $129M Partnership to Grow Businesses and Increase Access To Data Capacity for Africa

Master Services Agreement Has Laser Light Contracting with WIOCC for Undersea Cables and Support Services with WIOCC Contracting with Laser Light for Global Connectivity

Laser Light - WIOCC Partnership Will Bring Much Needed Next-Generation Network Capacity To Africa

RESTON, Va. and EBENE, Mauritius, July 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Laser Light Companies and WIOCC, Africa's digital backbone, have signed a five-year $129 million (USD) master services agreement. As part of the terms, Laser Light will contract WIOCC for capacity on terrestrial and subsea cables in and around Africa and support services. In turn, WIOCC will use Laser Light for its global connectivity needs beyond its current network footprint and bring the Laser Light service portfolio to its African clients. 

The agreement will commence upon initial operations of the Laser Light networking platform expected to begin at the end of 2023 with Africa being part of its Beta Program roll-out in partnership with Nokia announced in June. Exact deployment details will be announced in the coming months. 

Formed in 2008 and operating exclusively as a wholesaler, WIOCC is Africa's carriers' carrier, revolutionizing the delivery of high-capacity connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world. It provides tailored, end-to-end solutions between 30 African countries and key financial and commercial centres around the world. WIOCC's shareholder and partner networks interconnect over 1,000 locations across 30+ African countries using more than 75,000km of terrestrial fibre-optic network and up to 200,000km of subsea systems.

Laser Light is currently deploying its innovative, elastic all-optical network across all service domains - land, sea, and space - operating as a fully converged platform. Customers of the platform will be able to self-provision where, when, and how much data they need across continents, countries and the Edge while only paying for the volume transported. 

"The opportunity to partner with Laser Light in bringing this transformational capability for businesses and consumers in Africa is a key stepping stone in implementing our vision "to make an enduring contribution to Africa's communications." The partnership also offers us the ability to flexibly extend reach beyond the current network footprint and to expand our existing solutions and infrastructure portfolio with new services and capabilities for our clients," said Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC. "This agreement enables us to do so in an accelerated and cost-effective way which is beneficial to our clients and shareholders alike."

"The demand for connectivity options in Africa is immense, and we are honored to have Africa's leading carriers' carrier as one of our founding launch customers. Given their extensive infrastructure, relationships, and history of innovative and reliable telecommunications solutions, WIOCC is the ideal partner to be able greatly expand and accelerate the reach of the Laser Light platform throughout the continent," said Bob Brumley, Chairman and CEO of Laser Light Companies.

About Laser Light

Laser Light Holdings, Ltd is the owner/operator of an emerging global optical platform – network of networks – which will deliver a first-of-a-kind 21^st century data service that will transform the way high volume data communications traffic is carried, distributed, and utilized. Using a hybrid approach converging terrestrial, sub-sea, and space domains; an end-to-end software architecture, committed to a "best route, best latency" service; and a unique business model which emphasizes efficiency and operational simplicity, the Laser Light all-optical global data platform will connect companies, countries, and continents at high speed, more flexibly, securely and economically than ever before. Laser Light Holdings, Ltd, and its subsidiary Companies will do for networking what Cloud did for computing.  For more information, please visit www.laserlightcomms.com.

Laser Light Holdings has retained DelMorgan & Co., an internationally recognized investment banking firm, to lead an equity and debt raise on behalf of the company to accelerate and scale its global deployment of optical infrastructure. For transaction inquiries, please contact [email protected]

About WIOCC 

WIOCC is the leading player in the deployment of carrier-scale, future-proofed network infrastructure into Africa. We have the flexibility and scale to meet the ever-growing demand for reliable, high-speed capacity throughout Africa, driven by end consumers, enterprise users and the ecosystem that supports them.

Our policy of continual investment in our network to create Africa's first, truly hyperscale network infrastructure means ongoing investment for growth, ensuring our readiness to meet the future data volume demands of end users throughout Africa.

Operating exclusively as a wholesaler, we have revolutionised the delivery of high-capacity connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world. Widely recognised as Africa's carriers' carrier, we offer carriers, content providers, cloud operators, ISPs and mobile operators reliable, seamless, high-capacity connectivity between more than 30 African countries and key global financial and commercial centres.

Our focus on building and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with each client enables us to develop bespoke solutions that meet their current requirements and have the capability to match future demands for growth, extra resilience and geographical expansion.

– www.wiocc.net

SOURCE Laser Light Communications, LLC