Lusaka, Zambia, February 1st, 2011

As part of the continuing integration of AfriConnect into the Vodacom Group network, we are delighted to announce that AfriConnect have commissioned a new very high speed fibre optic cable link to connect Zambia to the rest of the world. In addition, we have commissioned, a direct fibre link directly into South Africa with ultra low latency (the time taken for a packet of data to reach it’s destination). This means quicker, more reliable and more robust connectivity into South Africa, which will improve efficiency for all customers who are connecting to their headquarters, suppliers, customers or websites located in South Africa. In addition to this new fibre installation, we have also commissioned more resilience through a second terrestrial link to Europe, and we have bought more satellite capacity, which will offer 1:1 back-up in case of any fibre cuts or scheduled maintenance.

Part two of our international fibre installation will include the commissioning of an MPLS link into the Vodacom MPLS network located in Johannesburg – this will be live within the next few weeks. This will allow our customers to utilise MPLS connectivity to anywhere in the world as we join the Vodacom MPLS Global Cloud. MPLS offers tier-1 connectivity, providing additional benefits over traditional VPN circuits such as guaranteed quality of service and higher prioritisation of your critical network traffic.

A considerable investment has also gone into our Network Operations Centre, with upgrades to our core server room and the creation of a separate customer-hosting environment. We are now able to offer our customers a high uptime hosting environment which includes security, fire suppression and stable power provisions, as well as having high bandwidth fibre circuits both internationally and locally to serve all your hosting needs. Our distribution network has also been upgraded with more power back-up and more resilience, ensuring that we meet the higher service levels that our customers now demand as connectivity becomes an integral part of their business.

Our network expansion is now well under way and AfriConnect has completed upgrades of our Copperbelt network, creating an MPLS backbone between the Copperbelt and Lusaka and increasing our network capacity in Kitwe, Ndola and Chingola. As a commitment to the growth of the Copperbelt we have introduced new services in Luanshya, Mufulira, and Chililabombwe.

Elsewhere we have introduced a wireless broadband service in Mazabuka and Siavonga. With offices in all these new locations, and with Internet cafes being introduced and expanded in others, we are creating local employment, and believe we are offering local businesses an opportunity to operate on a more efficient and profitable basis.

In Lusaka, we continue to develop our metropolitan fibre network and are now able to offer fibre connectivity to any location within the CBD and surrounding areas. This provides for high bandwidth capacity to your office allowing you to connect with speeds of up to 100mbps to our Network Operations Centre. Our fibre to the door solutions are perfect for those requiring high-bandwidth Internet access, wide area networks, VPNs, MPLS or leased circuits connectivity solutions. AfriConnect has, this past weekend, also commissioned a new call centre in order to meet demand for support services and sales. We offer a 16hour a day, 7 days a week service, and now have more phone lines and more staff, with a full and rapid escalation of any customer problems.