Telecoms infrastructure firm Main One Cable Company has revealed it has begun the final stage of deploying its high capacity fibre-optic cable from Seixal in Portugal through the West African coast to Ghana and Nigeria.
It is expected that the cable, which is scheduled to go live in June 2010, will bring much-needed international capacity into a region where rapid growth in telecoms has been blighted by limited global connectivity. ‘Now that the 7,000km trunk of the cable is being installed, we are pleased that our efforts over the last 18 months are coming to fruition,’ noted Funke Opeke, CEO of Main One.
In November 2009 Main One successfully completed the installation of the shore ends of the cable in the Nigerian capital Lagos, Accra in Ghana and Seixal. The company is also building two landing stations in Accra and Lagos, scheduled for completion next month. Equipment installation and end-to-end testing of the cable system will then follow, prior to service launch in June.
Main One says it will provide open access to 1.92Tbps of capacity to the West African region at less than 50% of current wholesale capacity prices. The company adds that it will help to minimise the difficulties of switching traffic between African countries and eliminate the inconveniences and added costs of first routing traffic to Europe.
Main One Cable Company is wholly-owned by Nigerian companies African Finance Corporation, FBN Capital, Skye Bank project sponsor Main Street Technologies, as well as South Africa-based Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund.
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