The African Finance Corporation (AFC) and partner investors announced today that an equity financing deal for the Main One Submarine Optical Fiber Cable System has been closed. AFC is one of the largest investors in the USD240-million African led project.<\/p>\n
The Main One Cable System is an undersea fiber optic cable system that will provide telecommunications capacity to countries on the West Coast of Africa. The project consists of 7 000 km of submarine fibre cable between Portugal and Nigeria with branching units to the Canary Islands, Morocco, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.<\/p>\n
The cable system is due to deliver 1.92 Tbps of bandwidth to the area, equivalent to ten times the current fiber optic capacity serving the West Coast of Africa and approximately two hundred times the satellite capacity currently available across Sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n
The service will operate on an open access basis to telecommunications, internet, and data providers in West Africa.<\/p>\n
Mr. Andrew Alli, the CEO of AFC said that “AFC is proud to be a partner in the Main One submarine cable system project, an African conceived and driven project which will open and integrate the markets of the continent. The project will provide much needed bandwidth for wider provision of affordable and cost effective telecommunications and internet services in West Africa, with specific focus on Nigeria and Ghana.”<\/p>\n
When it comes on-stream in 2010, Main One promises to improve access to the internet and telecommunications services to over 250 million people in West Africa and will serve to lower the associated communication costs in the region.<\/p>\n
Main One will interconnect countries on the Atlantic Coast, from Morocco through to Angola, with each other and through Portugal to the rest of the world. Specifically, the cable system will originate in Seixal, Portugal where it will interconnect with other cable systems to London, New York and key cities in Asia.<\/p>\n
The cable system will also directly connect landing stations in Accra and Lagos in Phase 1, with optional landings in Casablanca, Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire; Bonny, Nigeria; Libreville, Gabon; Pointe Noire, Congo; Luanda, Angola; and Cape Town, South Africa, subject to the securing of licenses in these additional destinations.<\/p>\n
If this were to go ahead it would provide a welcome addition to the recently landed SEACOM cable system which has a capacity of 1.28 Tbps and is set to officially launch in early July 2009. <\/p>\n
Other submarine cable systems in progress include the 1.4 Tbps Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and the 3.84 Tbps West African Cable System (WACS).<\/p>\n