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| US$200m telecom project to digitally connect Africa takes off
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Accra, Ghana (PANA) – A 200 million-
dollar telecommunications project aimed
at improving telecommunications among African countries and with Europe has
taken off.
The project, to lay undersea fibre optic cable, being undertaken by Main One
Cable Company will help to minimize the difficulties of switching traffic
between African countries and eliminate the inconveniences and added cost of
first routing traffic to Europe.
It will provide reliable internet and telecommunication services to industry
stakeholders, Ms Funke Opeke, Chief Executive Officer of Main One Cable
Company, told reporters in Accra.
She said it was in line with the continent's quest to participate fully in
the Information and Communication Technology through digital connection with
the rest of the world.
The company has already begun laying the cables, which will run from
Portugal to Ghana and Nigeria to enhance efforts to digitally connect Africa
with the rest of the world.
Ms Opeke said the first phase of the project was expected to be completed in
May 2010.
The first phase spans 6,900 kilometres extending from Portugal to Ghana and
Nigeria with an additional 6,000 kilometres extension to South Africa and
Angola in the second phase.
The development, she said, represented a major landmark for the continent,
as this was the first time ever that a private sector driven undersea cable
network had received landing licences.
The company secured the licenses from Ghana's National Communications
Authority and the Nigerian Communications Commission granting it the right
to land its intercontinental undersea fibre optic cable in the two
countries.
Ms. Opeke said funding for the project was sought within the African
continent adding "it shows how committed we are in using the continent's
resources to build this solid infrastructure for Africa".
"The unique promise of the Main One undersea cable to boost Internet access
across the African continent lies in the huge improvement in bandwidth which
we will be driving even while reducing costs phenomenally".
Main One, she said, is deploying the very latest technology in undersea
fibre optic cabling.
"In employing the combination of Dense Wave Multiplexing Technology of 1.28
Terabits per second and two fibre pairs Main One will deliver far more
capacity to the region than any existing or proposed undersea projects even
while bringing costs down to about 20 percent of what is currently
obtainable from SAT 3 or satellite service operators," Opeke stated.
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| Accra - 07/02/2009 |
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