Nigeria is the fastest growing market of ICT/Telecoms in Africa, therefore, the attendant call for improved bandwidth capacity has drawn major operators in the sector to seek several ways to boost broadband connectivity.
According to Funke Opeke, the chief executive officer of Main One Cable company, one way to boost broadband connectivity is by providing submarine cables.
“Nigeria, being the largest (and still expanding) market in the West African region, a reliable broadband infrastructure will go a long way to enhance the service quality of currently existing (voice and internet) services, which are currently beleaguered by poor quality of service and also reduce costs,” she said.
Ms. Opeke said broadband connectivity would not be beneficial to only Nigeria, but to all of Africa “as this would give Africa real–time access to global information, resources and market opportunities”.
Recently, Glo –One submarine cable, owned by Globacom Nigeria, landed in Lagos. A source at the firm said the landing point in Lagos has already been laid.
“The cable has departed Nigeria to Ghana. After the termination in Ghana, it will move on to Togo, Senegal, Benin and basically the rest of West Africa,” he said. “It is wise that the presence of the cable is noticed in West African countries as the termination of its presence spreads.”
Impact on the industry
At present, Nigeria draws its broadband connection from the South Atlantic 3 (SAT-3), which has a capacity of 120 gigabit per second.
SAT-3 cable has the largest consortium in the world, with 36-members, as it spans from Portugal and Spain to South Africa, through some West African countries including Benin, Togo, Niger, and Nigeria.
As such, the SAT-3 has faced some setbacks. The most recent was in August, which was said to have disabled about 70 per cent of Nigeria’s bandwidth and caused severe problems for users in countries like Benin, Togo, and Niger.
Taj Onigbanjo, head of Cable & Wireless in the Middle East and Africa, said: “Specifically, in ICT/ Telecom industry, for the first time, there will be an alternative to SAT-3 which has served Nigeria well over time, despite some hiccups. However, the nature of communications is that you cannot be dependent on a single source as this leads to single point of failure. So, I expect that these new cables will provide both resilience and diversity to the existing service – as well as opening up new markets and opportunities, dependent on the pricing.”
Globacom Nigeria’s group executive director, Paddy Adenuga, said: “The Glo-1 cable will deliver transmission capacity that will radically change Nigeria and Africa’s economic landscape by providing unprecedented high speed internet services and make telecom services much faster, more reliable and cheaper for consumers.”
He added that the Glo-1’s current and ultimate capacity is enough to cater to the required broadband capacity of Nigeria for at least the next 15 to 20 years.
Effect on pricing
From NEXT’s investigation, the prices for SAT-3 bandwidth in the African countries it serves are around $4,500–$12,000 a megabit per month, over 50 times higher than bandwidth prices in the United State.
Ms. Opeke, however, said that as the service quality improves, prices will fall.
“Better the service quality (at current or slightly reduced prices) will likely occur in the short term. However, a significant decline in prices is likely to result over time.”
Ernest Ndukwe, the vice-chairperson of the Nigerian Communication Commission, said on Thursday at the International Telecommunication Union meeting in Geneva that telecom investments in Nigeria have hit over $18 billion since 2001.
Mr. Ndukwe said the current investment figure is made up of about $12 billion from foreign direct investment, while the balance is from investments made from within the country.