By Mulengera Reporters
Bayobab Uganda is proud to announce the successful unveiling of its newest shortest and fastest fibre optic route – the Uganda Railway National Long Distance (NLD) from Malaba to Kampala. Bayobab, an MTN Group company, is the digital infrastructure pillar of the Group and one of industry leaders revolutionising connectivity across the East African Corridor. This transformative infrastructure project reinforces MTN’s vision of delivering connectivity to all by expanding its fibre footprint across the markets in which it operates.
The strategic route spans 260 km from Kampala to Tororo, with an extension to Malaba, forming a critical link between Uganda and Kenya. Built between December 2024 and February 2025, this route delivers reliable, high-capacity connectivity from Uganda’s capital to Bayobab’s subsea cable landing stations in Mombasa and leveraging the recent launch of the Mombasa to Malaba/Busia fibre route in Kenya, completing East Africa’s digital backbone Kampala to Mombasa.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony held in Kampala today, Juliet Nsubuga, the Managing Director of Bayobab Uganda said that; Bayobab Uganda heeded the call for technological transformation across the nation and the region to benefit its communities with reliable and accessible connectivity to the internet.
“In collaboration with the Uganda Railway, we leveraged the existing rail network to deploy fibre, enhancing connectivity and providing high-speed internet access to communities along the line, connecting key routes between Kampala and Malaba at the Kenyan border – and beyond,” said Nsubuga, “This new route caters to the needs of international and national technology and digital players, telecoms and ISPs that serve the communities demonstrating our belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern, connected life.”
As a landlocked nation, Uganda’s access to high-speed internet and global digital infrastructure relies heavily on cross-border connectivity. This new route provides the shortest and newest connection from Kampala to the Kenya–Uganda border, leveraging the Bayobab Kenya infrastructure to reach Mombasa subsea landing points. The route serves as a powerful alternative to existing fibre systems, offering route diversity and significantly improved network reliability through low latency and increased resilience.
Speaking on behalf of Hon. Nyombi Tembo, the Executive Director Uganda Communications Commission, Julianne Mweheire welcomed the milestone. He stated that: “The new route adds to the existing fibre network, connecting Uganda to the Kenya border and should increase on the already existing redundancy of connectivity access for Uganda as a whole. This launch aligns perfectly with Uganda’s national agenda to digitize services, expand connectivity, and close the gap between urban and rural access.”
Sylvia Mulinge, the MTN CEO affirmed that the launch of the Kampala–Malaba Fiber Optic Route is a bold statement of MTN’s vision of ensuring that every Ugandan, wherever they live, experiences the benefits of a modern connected life.
“Imagine a startup in Lira testing its mobile app on cloud platforms without delays. A farmer in Kayunga checking real-time weather patterns to guide planting decisions. A remote school in Kisoro livestreaming science lessons from a national university. This is what a modern connected life looks like, and this is what we are enabling,” Mulinge said.
Bayobab, the digital infrastructure unit of Africa’s largest telecom group MTN, is building out pan-African fibre infrastructure to meet rising demand from telecom operators, internet service providers, and global technology firms. The new route supports over 1 terabyte (TB) of capacity and offers low-latency, high-redundancy connectivity to key data centres in Kampala, including Raxio, Airtel House, and MTN Uganda, enabling improved and seamless interconnection options for service providers and hyperscalers.
Bayobab’s infrastructure opens up new opportunities for hyperscalers, cloud providers and enterprise customers to operate and invest in Uganda. The company reiterated its long-term goal of enabling Africa’s digital economy by connecting people, businesses, and markets across the continent. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
