A new fiber-optic route has officially gone live in East Africa, creating a direct land connection between Mombasa and Goma.
The project was built by the pan-African network provider Paratus Group. The fiber-optic line runs through Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, before reaching Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a remarkable 2000km in length.
This new route aims to create a faster and more reliable way for internet traffic to move between inland parts of East and Central Africa and the global internet. The global internet largely enters the region through undersea cables at the Kenyan coast.
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The fiber-optic route passes through major cities including Nairobi, Kampala, and Kigali. By linking these major cities directly by land, Paratus hopes the route helps improve internet quality for businesses, mobile operators, internet service providers, and data centers operating across borders.
For Paratus, the motivation is strategic. The company is steadily building long-distance fiber-optic routes across Africa to support growing demand for cloud services, fintech, and cross-border businesses.
Paratus is fully licensed in all East African countries through its subsidiary operating companies: Paratus Rwanda, Paratus Uganda and Paratus Kenya. It also has partnerships with Roke Telkom in Uganda and MoveOn Telecoms in Kenya.
Routes like this help build faster and more reliable internet, but their real value will be seen in whether they lower costs for everyday users, especially in countries where connectivity remains expensive despite strong infrastructure.
