P/04 · OPTICAL FIBRE
High-capacity dark fibre backhaul replacing legacy microwave links across Ghana.
// What it is
One neutral host, multiple operators.
Dark fibre is optical fibre that has been installed but carries no active electronics — it is "unlit" cable that the lessee activates with their own transceivers and wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) equipment. African Towers builds and owns the civil infrastructure (ducts, manholes, splice closures, fibre cable), leases strands to operators and enterprise clients on indefeasible right-of-use (IRU) or operating lease terms, and maintains the civil layer. The customer owns the active electronics and can upgrade capacity on their own terms without requiring new civil works.
// Who it's for
Built for these infrastructure users.
- Mobile operators seeking high-capacity tower backhaul to replace microwave hops
- Data centre and cloud providers needing inter-DC connectivity
- Enterprise campuses (airports, ports, hospitals, universities) needing private high-capacity links
- ISPs and wholesale carriers needing last-mile or inter-city capacity
// How it works
The shared-infrastructure model explained.
African Towers funds, permits and installs the duct and fibre infrastructure, typically alongside its tower builds or as dedicated fibre routes. Multiple operators lease separate dark strands from the same cable — sharing the civil investment while keeping their traffic entirely separate. African Towers manages splice points, route maintenance and fault response; each operator manages their own light.
// Use cases
Representative deployments.
- Accra–Tema corridor — high-capacity inter-city backhaul alongside the motorway
- Tower backhaul ring — fibre loop connecting 20 Accra macro sites eliminating microwave hops
- Port of Tema — private enterprise fibre for Ghana Ports Authority and shipping agents
- Hospital campus — multi-building DWDM ring for Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
- Enterprise campus — University of Ghana main campus fibre backbone
Frequently asked questions
- What is dark fibre and how does it differ from managed capacity?
- Dark fibre is an unlit strand of optical cable — African Towers installs and maintains the physical fibre and duct; you supply the transceivers and activate the capacity. This gives you full control of your bandwidth, protocol and wavelength plan. Managed capacity (lit fibre) is where the carrier also provides the optical equipment and sells capacity in increments (e.g. 10 Gbps, 100 Gbps) — less control, higher opex per bit.
- Why replace microwave backhaul with fibre?
- Microwave backhaul is weather-sensitive (rain fade on high-frequency bands), capacity-limited (typically sub-1 Gbps per hop) and increasingly spectrum-constrained as 4G LTE adds traffic. Dark fibre backhaul delivers 100 Gbps+ per strand, is unaffected by weather, and provides the latency profile that 5G core requirements demand.
- What are the leasing terms for dark fibre?
- African Towers offers both IRU agreements (typically 15–20 years, treated as a capital lease) and shorter operating leases (5–10 years, renewable). Routes and strand counts are agreed upfront; the IRU model provides certainty and off-balance-sheet flexibility for operators.
- Is fibre available outside Greater Accra?
- Current fibre routes are concentrated in Greater Accra and the Tema corridor, with extensions being planned to Kumasi. Dedicated route builds to any location in Ghana are available as part of the Build-To-Suit programme — African Towers funds the civil works and recovers cost through an anchor-tenant IRU.
// Related services