Main One Cable, a submarine cable company offering broadband capacity in West Africa on Tuesday in Lagos, announced the completion and commissioning of its 1, 920 Gbps, 7000 kilometres long, submarine fibre optic cable system linking West Africa to Europe.
The service is targeted mainly at improving the efficiency and capacity of existing broadband services in the region. With landing stations in Nigeria and Ghana and branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands and Cote d’Ivoire, the cable is expected to provide distinctive broadband capacity to West Africa, more than 10 times what is currently available.
Fola Adeola, the company’s chairman, said the commissioning proves that much good can be done by Africans for Africans. “Today is a historic day for West Africa. We are pleased to realise the fruit of our dedication and commitment in the past 30 months. More importantly, we are happy to be a channel for driving growth in Africa and changing the status quo for the average African as reliable Internet connectivity becomes easily accessible and affordable for all.”
Robin Sanders, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria said at the event that she was glad a United States company was involved in the process that brought about the achievement.
‘We have a lot to offer’
Funke Opeke, the company’s managing director said the cable had a lot to offer. “For industries and institutions looking for modern technology, they now have the ability to access these at any global market on the Internet,” Ms Opeke said.
“Educational institutions, younger generation have the opportunity to access the same facility their partners in advanced societies have access to,” adding that the ramifications of the cable will be felt in all sectors: from education, to health, entertainment, helping drive economic growth and creating job opportunities across Africa.
Ms Opeke, while taking the guest on a tour of the cable and associated instalments, said the cable was expected to enrich the quality of education and curriculum available.
The story of the first submarine cable in West Africa started with an indigenous Nigerian company, Main Street Technologies (MST) initiating the construction of a submarine cable. The African telecommunications sector has witnessed enormous growth over recent years; rapid mobile uptake and Internet penetration is driving a spike in demand for international connectivity.
Although there are a number of submarine cables in various stages of development on the East African coast, to date, the only international fiber-optic connection in West Africa is being provided by the SAT-3 cable. The Main One cable system, a special purpose vehicle of Main Street Technologies, was initiated to provide the much-needed fiber-optic broadband connectivity to help meet the growing international connectivity in Africa.
Technology experts say the cable system is a cheaper and more robust alternative to satellite connection for telecommunications access. It is expected to deliver capacity worldwide via its Tier 1 interconnection partners in Telehouse London, who will provide onward connectivity to 120 cities around the world.
The project is in two phases: the development of an approximately 6,905km of cable connectivity between Portugal, Ghana and Nigeria with the construction cost put at $240million; and the development of an approximately 5,473km of cable connectivity between Nigeria and Ghana to Angola and South Africa. The second phase is, however, an independent project, as such its completion or otherwise will not affect the operation of the first phase.