Orange subsidiary Sonatel has announced plans to open a joint network operations centre in Dakar, Senegal, on 1 February 2016, from which to manage its networks in Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. The project will include Orange’s subsidiaries in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All core network and platform services for all Orange affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa.
The facility will be opened on a build, operate, transfer basis by a third party and once built will be partly transferred to Orange Cote d’Ivoire. Huawei is providing the infrastructructure for two sites in Dakar and Abidjan, with the headquarters to be in Dakar. Sonatel said the joint network operation centre is part of its AMEA Network Optimisation transformation project. Sonatel said it was too soon to discuss who will be its outsourcer. Orange first announced the African network monitoring plan in July.
