News
Triple Point’s Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (“D9” or “The Company”) invests in assets which are improving connectivity and reducing the global digital divide. Internet access is increasingly seen as a twenty first century human right. It enables us to communicate with colleagues and customers, socialise with friends and family, and access essential goods and services. But around the world there is a digital divide. Billions of people expect (and, in developed nations, usually get) fast and reliable internet connections. But this is not the case in the least developed nations, where just 19% of households are online (World Economic Forum, April 2020). As part of the Sustainable Development Goal 9, the UN has declared universal access to the Internet to be a “priority for all states”. The UN’s argument is that those who lack internet access will be left behind economically and academically, that the internet drives sustainable economic development.
The 9 in Digital 9 Infrastructure comes from the UN SDG 9, which aims to reduce this digital divide by improving connectivity globally, in an environmentally sustainable manner.
D9 has agreed to purchase rights to one fibre pair from Edge Network Services Ltd on the recently announced 2Africa Pearls fibreoptic cable system, enabling connectivity from Europe through Egypt to Oman and India. The Company will market the route as EMIC-1. Aqua Comms will operate and manage the capacity on behalf of D9 as an integral part of its expanding global subsea network.
The EMIC-1 system extends D9’s fibre network to over 30,000 kilometres, and will operate on a route that provides resilient, enhanced internet connectivity to 1.8 billion people.
