About the standard

The Open Fibre Data Standard, in plain terms.

OFDS is an open specification for describing fibre-optic networks — the cables, the points they connect, who owns them, and the contracts behind them — in a way that any government, regulator, or operator can read and share.

OFDS is

A shared vocabulary for networks, nodes, spans, organisations, phases and contracts.
A way to publish fibre data without forcing every operator into the same internal schema.
Open, version-tracked (currently 0.4), and royalty-free to implement.
A foundation for evidence-based digital infrastructure planning in Kenya.

OFDS is not

A surveillance or enforcement tool. It supports planning and coordination only.
A taxation instrument. Operators retain commercial confidentiality where appropriate.
A real-time outage feed or a network management system.
A mandate to publish every node — tiered sharing protects sensitive detail.

Kenya Minimum Viable Dataset

A pragmatic starting point: the Kenya MVD.

The Kenya MVD is a reduced OFDS profile — only the fields the Communications Authority, World Bank Kenya, and the Technical Working Group consider essential for the first phase of national coordination. The converter recommends it by default and lets advanced users opt into the full OFDS 0.4 specification when they have richer data.

Every dataset is anchored in a Network. Phases describe rollout stages, Contracts capture procurement, Organisations play roles (owner, operator, regulator), and the physical topology lives in Nodes connected by Spans. Geometry on Nodes and Spans is only published when the chosen sharing tier permits.