MAIN One, a Nigerian-owned undersea cable project, has signed an agreement with Seacom and local group eFive Telecoms to build a 400m telecommunications fibreoptic cable “ring” from SA to Nigeria.

With Main One’s fibre ring, bandwidth prices are expected to fall further given increased levels of competition.

The new fibre ring cable will add to the objectives of other undersea cables such as Seacom and West Africa Cable Systems to remove the international infrastructure bottleneck in Africa. Main One runs from Nigeria to London, while Seacom is concentrated on east Africa by linking the region with Europe and India.

The west African region has relied on Telkom ’s Sat3 undersea cable for connection to the rest of the world.

Main One CEO Funke Opeke said Main One’s first phase, a 7000km cable from Nigeria to London, would be launched in June. “We believe that the proposed partnership with Seacom and eFive telecoms is the best way forward,” he said.

The second phase, through a partnership with eFive Telecoms and Seacom, was expected to be completed in 2012.

Lawrence Mulaudzi, eFive Telecoms MD, said despite the global economic markets, “we are confident that there is sufficient appetite to fund quality projects in high- growth sectors such as African telecommunications”.

EFive Telecoms will partner with Nova Capital Africa, an investment banking group, to raise the 400m needed for the construction of the cable.

Seacom CEO Brian Herlihy said a system circling the entire continent was the best way to attain adequate redundancy while offering customers a comprehensive telecommunications connectivity solution.

“The (agreement) shows the determination to find a viable way to extend our system with partners who share our vision for the development of ICT (information and communication technology) on the continent,” he said.

Mulaudzi said the new cable would offer an open access system to customers.

Arthur Goldstuck, MD of research firm World Wide Worx, said Main One would boost competition in the region and provide back-up in the event of a technical failure by another cable.

He said the fibre ring would also enhance communications for South African companies operating in Nigeria, such as the MTN Group .

“Fibre explosion across Africa is going to result in dramatically enhanced communications such as video conferencing, which is a superb solution to the difficulties of travelling in Africa.”

Goldstuck said more fibreoptic network on the continent would push bandwidth prices down, as with the launch of Seacom last year.

Tweet

Share

0