Nigerian CommunicationWeek

MainOne Decry Poor Infrastructure, Invests for Broadband Penetration

MainOne Cable, West Africa’s first open access submarine fibre optic cable system has reiterated its determined to adequately service the huge market potential in Nigeria and its sub-regional neighbours, even as it decried the absence of an open access national backbone infrastructure facility. Nigeria CommunicationsWeek reports that the company has subsequently begun a process of expanding its infrastructure network into the hinterland from its coastal base in Lagos for increased penetration.
Ms. Funke Opeke, MainOne CEO said in a recent interview explained that the investment became imperative in view of the increasing demand the firm is recording on a daily basis.
According to her, many people have discovered the need for better access to the internet at a very fast and cheap rate and they also want to be able to use new kinds of applications, as well as access different types of content. “People know they want better access to the internet. They want it faster, cheaper, and they want to be able to drive new kinds of applications, access different types of content,” said Opeke.
In order to service more customers, she disclosed that MainOne has started investing in distribution infrastructure, building its own networks when it can not find commercially reasonable rates. “The biggest challenge that we see is getting the capacity we have in this big pipe that we brought into Nigeria and Ghana across the region to reach the people and businesses where they need the service,” Ms. Opeke added.
She however, stated that she was not surprised with the huge market potentials MainOne now enjoys as it was envisaged long before the fibre-optic cable was launched. “I had hoped for the high demand when I first started sketching out my business plan far back in 2007,” said Opeke.
Besides servicing the internet needs in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, the MainOne boss said there are also plans to extend the cable down the coast to South Africa and interconnect with Seacom, (the East African submarine cable which became operational in 2009).
The MainOne chief executive stated that the fibre-optic cable facility launched by her firm in 2010 has an unmatched capacity of 1.92 terabits a second. It currently runs live in Nigeria and Ghana with further plans to commence operations in other West Africa countries.
Barely six months after launch, Opeke says, the facility has helped improve the availability of internet services, especially in Lagos and Accra, as well as lowered wholesale prices significantly, by up to 80 per cent.
The MainOne boss stated that the lack of a national backbone infrastructure on an open-access basis as a factor militating against transportation of capacity within Nigeria. According to her, connecting people from the company’s landing point in Nigeria to London costs less than connecting people across Lagos. “You have to buy that infrastructure from people who own it for their own proprietary use,” she says.
MainOne Cable connects West Africa with Europe, providing ultra-fast broadband in the region. The cable runs from Lagos in Nigeria through Accra in Ghana to Seixal, Portugal and branches out in Ivory Coast, Senegal, Canary Islands and Morocco.

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