In his words, “Today is a historic day for West Africa. We are pleased to realise the fruit of our dedication and commitment in the past 30 months. More importantly, we are happy to be a channel for driving growth in Africa and changing the status quo for the average African as reliable Internet connectivity becomes easily accessible and affordable for all.”

‘We have a lot to offer’; Funke Opeke, the company’s managing director said. “For industries and institutions looking for modern technology, they now have the ability to access these at any global market on the Internet,” Ms Opeke said. “Educational institutions, younger generation have the opportunity to access the same facility their partners in advanced societies have access to,” adding that the ramifications of the cable will be felt in all sectors: from education, to health, entertainment, helping drive economic growth and creating job opportunities across Africa.

According to 234Next, Ms Opeke, while taking the guest on a tour of the cable and associated instalments, said the cable was expected to enrich the quality of education and curriculum available. The story of the first submarine cable in West Africa started with an indigenous Nigerian company, Main Street Technologies (MST) initiating the construction of a submarine cable. The African telecommunications sector has witnessed enormous growth over recent years; rapid mobile uptake and Internet penetration is driving a spike in demand for international connectivity. Although there are a number of submarine cables in various stages of development on the East African coast, to date, the only international fiber-optic connection in West Africa is being provided by the SAT-3 cable. The Main One cable system, a special purpose vehicle of Main Street Technologies, was initiated to provide the much-needed fiber-optic broadband connectivity to help meet the growing international connectivity in Africa. Technology experts say the cable system is a cheaper and more robust alternative to satellite connection for telecommunications access. It is expected to deliver capacity worldwide via its Tier 1 interconnection partners in Telehouse London, who will provide onward connectivity to 120 cities around the world. The project is in two phases: the development of an approximately 6,905km of cable connectivity between Portugal, Ghana and Nigeria with the construction cost put at $240million; and the development of an approximately 5,473km of cable connectivity between Nigeria and Ghana to Angola and South Africa. The second phase is, however, an independent project, as such its completion or otherwise will not affect the operation of the first phase.

The resultant effect of this is massive for the Web Industry in Nigeria. It means lower costs of getting connected to the internet, which will increase the number od Internet users in Nigeria. It also means developers can worry less about slow internet connections when deploying websites and web applications. There will also be many other indirect benefits to the web community such as faster download times, watching online Videos without delays, and I believe, will eventually lead to an increase of Nigerian content on the web. We should not forget that Globacom’s Submarine cable, GLO1, has also arrived. We can’t wait for these companies to start offering their services.

We at WebtrendsNG, heartily congratulate Main One Cable on this landmark achievement.

PS: MTN and Starcomms will use this cable, so frustrated users of these networks should have a reprieve.

We would like to hear your views on what this development portends. Do leave comments below.