MainOne, West Africa’s leading connectivity and data centre solutions provider has announced plans to extend its subsea cable network to Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, to further stimulate broadband penetration and ICT development across the region. The company announced the expansion of its network into Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal with the deployment of optical fibre between branching units of the subsea cable system to proposed landing stations within each country.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke, made this known during the company’s Annual General Meeting in Abidjan, where she engaged relevant stakeholders following the issuance of the license to land the cable in Abidjan. Describing the role of ICT as a pivotal stimulant of economic growth, Ms. Opeke expressed the company’s readiness to invest in broadband infrastructure to support rapid growth in the Francophone region. “The cable landing will provide open-access infrastructure within Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal, increase broadband access and usage as a result of accessible local broadband infrastructure with a goal to further decrease broadband prices in order to make the internet more accessible to all users in the region. Availability of broadband infrastructure will support the rapid pace of development in the region, facilitate increased non-resources trade, globalization and improve public services to aid the evolution of regional businesses. Ultimately, this will enable the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries emerge hubs for ICT development in Africa” she said.
“By investing and encouraging the business ecosystem within West Africa, we hope to bring meaningful and much-needed technology solutions to a variety of businesses, to enable them in their quest for improved productivity and efficiency through dedicated and reliable connectivity services. We are prepared to collaborate with incumbent operators to crash wholesale connectivity costs in the region by up to 50% towards enhancing regional integration and global access,” she continued.
A 2017 report by Fraym and Harith General Partners titled ‘Infrastructure as a Disruptor: Leveraging private capital for growth’ identified a strong correlation between wealth and internet connectivity and spotlights how technology adoption has helped sub-Saharan African countries break out of the vicious grip of persisting underdevelopment. The report specifically stressed that internet access in cities with MainOne coverage accelerated faster than those without.
MainOne is committed to deepening broadband access via fibre infrastructure and data centres across West Africa. With service delivery in 10 countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cameroun, Benin, Niger, Senegal and Chad, MainOne operates a 100G international submarine cable system which guarantees highly reliable connectivity to support the growing demand for Internet access and bandwidth-intensive applications such as eCommerce, Content providers, OTT players and electronic banking and payment services via 3/4G mobile networks. The MainOne Submarine cable was the first privately owned cable in West Africa spanning 7000KM with a capacity of 4.96 TBPS to connect West Africa to Europe via a landing in Portugal and multiple routes to London, Paris, and Amsterdam.