JULY 6, 2010 - Main One has announced that its 1,920-Gbps, 7,000-kilometer-long, submarine fiber-optic cable system linking West Africa to Europe has been completed and commissioned.
With landing stations in Nigeria and Ghana and branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal, and Ivory Coast, the cable will deliver broadband capacity to West Africa, more than 10 times what is currently available in the region, according to a spokesperson.
The cable system now in operation is expected to impact businesses, governments, and individuals positively by providing higher bandwidth and exceptional speeds at a lower cost. The ramifications of Main One’s cable will be felt in all sectors: from education, through to health and entertainment, helping to driving economic growth and creating job opportunities all over Africa.
“Today is a historic day for West Africa. The arrival of the Main One cable proves that enormous good can be done by Africans for Africans. We are pleased to realize the fruit of our dedication and commitment over 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 by providing reliable internet connectivity that is easily accessible and affordable for all,” says Fola Adeola, chairman, Main One Cable Company.
“We commend TE SubCom, our turnkey system supplier for delivering a high-quality solution to us in record time,” adds Funke Opeke, CEO of Main One. “TE SubCom demonstrated a willingness to work with us from the very inception of the project, despite the challenges we faced pioneering a project of this magnitude in this part of the world. We are delighted that as a result of their commitment and effort, we have a world class network to showcase and that will be providing excellent service for at least the next 25 years.”
“The on-schedule completion of Main One cable is a vital technological advancement and achievement for West Africa,” says David Coughlan, president of TE SubCom. “The fiber system we have deployed for Main One will provide the much needed bandwidth and capacity to facilitate communication between West Africa and the rest of the world. Although the design capacity for the system was 1.92 TB/s, we’ve been able to demonstrate that with TE SubCom’s 40G SLTE equipment deployed, the as-installed system is actually capable of 4.96 TB/s of capacity.”