Ghana and Nigeria Telecommunication industry are set to experience exciting times with the completion of a US$200 million submarine fibre optic cable connectivity project being spearheaded by MainOne Cable Company by June 2010.
The 14,000 kilometers span undersea cable system, when completed will provide direct international connectivity for West African countries to Europe and beyond.
The system is expected to complement the business of Regional operators and Internet Service Providers by providing a wholesale solution for international bandwidth on a shared infrastructure basis.
The platform designed to deliver more capacity to the region than any other existing or proposed undersea fibre projects will operate on a Dense Wave Multiplexing (DWM) technology of 1.92 Terabits per second with two fibre pairs, representing approximately 10 times the current capacity available in some West African nations.
The system will also ease the difficulties and reduce the costs of switching traffic between African countries without the need to go through Europe, as well as providing broadband capacity to expand Internet access in the sub-Saharan region, which currently stands at less than five percent.
This is expected to enhance broadband access considerably in the region, providing open access to regional telecommunication operators and Internet service providers.
It is also anticipated that the tariffs for international bandwidth can fall below 20 percent of the current market rate with a much improved services such as easy downloading of information and effective international voice servicing.
The first phase, 6,900 kilometers long which has already commenced, will directly connect landing stations in Accra and Lagos to Portugal with optional landings in Casablanca, Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, and Bonny Nigeria; Libreville, Gabon; Pointe Noire, Congo; Luanda, Angola.
The second phase is expected to extend by another 6,000 kilometers to South Africa, through Portugal where it will interconnect with other cable systems to London, New York and key cities in Asia and the rest of the world.
Funke Opeke, Chief Executive Officer of MainOne Cable Company at a media briefing in Accra, targeted at increasing awareness on the project, disclosed that a landing site, located at Nungua, in the Greater Accra region has been secured with an intensive engineering and testing operations underway.
“Testing of the seabed and major activities to detect any unforeseen impediment has commenced in earnest, the company still remained much focused on ensuring that its deadlines are met and was very happy at the tremendous progress so far recorded.
“MainOne is progressing ahead of schedule, with marine route survey activities underway and key licenses being confirmed including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“We trust that on completion in 2010, the MainOne project will afford a new lease of life in international connectivity on the West African community for an exciting connectivity in the larger global economy.”
Industry players have embraced the project as a major milestone especially for the advancement in the West Africa’s telecommunication arena.
MainOne’s project has come when Ghana is experiencing explosive growth in tele-density but, constrained with access to international cable capacity for global connectivity.
Data obtained from the national telecom regulator, the National Communication Authority (NCA), shows that the number of mobile subscribers has shot up exponentially from the 7,604,053 subscriber figure recorded at the beginning of 2008 to 11,302,647 subscribers at the end of the year.
This figure indicate that more than half the estimated 22 million Ghanaian population have subscribed to mobile telephony services in the country bringing the tele-density rate of the country to 50 percent.
This is fuelled by the entry of new operators and stringent government policy to create a conducive environment for operators.
Currently, there are seven voice telephony operators in the country with Ghana Telecom and Zain Ghana Limited as the only fixed-line providers.
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