Seacom activates 1Tbps Nairobi-Kampala fiber route

Seacom has activated a high-capacity terrestrial fiber route linking Nairobi, Kisumu, and Kampala, delivering 1Tbps of active capacity to one of East Africa’s busiest internet corridors. The infrastructure is designed to scale to 30Tbps, providing a direct path from Mombasa’s subsea cable landing stations to inland markets where demand for cloud services, mobile data, and cross-border business traffic is rising rapidly.

What happened

The new route went live on 19 June 2026, adding a dedicated terrestrial link to the existing subsea and satellite capacity that serves Kenya, Uganda, and neighboring countries. Seacom’s upgrade targets the Nairobi-Kampala corridor, which carries traffic for financial institutions, telecom operators, public-sector agencies, and regional cloud platforms. The company has not disclosed the exact fiber count or vendor, but the design includes dark fiber pairs reserved for future expansion.

Why it matters

East Africa’s digital economy depends on reliable, high-speed connectivity between coastal landing stations and inland hubs. Mombasa serves as the primary entry point for subsea cables from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but inland routes have historically been constrained by limited capacity and higher latency. Seacom’s new link reduces reliance on satellite backhaul and older microwave links, lowering costs for carriers and improving performance for latency-sensitive applications such as real-time payments and video conferencing.

The upgrade also supports the region’s growing cloud adoption. Hyperscalers and neo-cloud providers have been expanding their African footprints, but their ability to deliver consistent service depends on robust terrestrial backhaul. By increasing capacity and reducing congestion, Seacom’s route enables these providers to offer lower-latency connections to customers in Uganda and western Kenya, where cloud demand is accelerating among banks, healthcare providers, and e-commerce platforms.

What to watch

Seacom has indicated that the Nairobi-Kampala route is the first phase of a broader inland expansion. The company has secured rights of way along additional corridors, including potential extensions to Kigali and Bujumbura, which could further integrate East Africa’s digital infrastructure. Observers will also monitor how quickly carriers and cloud providers provision services over the new link, as well as any impact on pricing for enterprise and wholesale customers in the region.