Nigerian-Owned Main One Cable Will Land in Five Pl

Main One Cable

Nigerian-owned Mainstreet Technologies said this week that the Main One Cable is on schedule to be operational by June 2010 and that the building of landing stations has started in Ghana, Nigeria and Portugal.
Also, there will be three other landing station points in Africa with landing station partners to be announced in 2010.
In early September, Globacom announced that the much-delayed Glo-1 cable had landed in Lagos.
The telecommunications industry in Nigeria has practically given up on Glo-1,Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Product Key, given that the cable is not yet able to provide access to its potential customers.
Meanwhile Main One seems to be making steady progress in becoming the second competitive cable in West Africa by June 2010.
According to Main One’s Commercial Director Bernard Logan, it is “80% through production” of the fibre, has “started its first lay in Ghana” and is building three landing stations in Ghana, Nigeria, and Portugal.
The Main One cable will land in Morocco, Senegal,Office Professional Plus 2010 X64 Key, and Cote d’Ivoire by making agreements with landing partners; these will be announced in 2010.
Although the market for international fibre is going to be very competitive with four new cables service West Africa (Glo-1, Main One, WACS and ACE), Main One is already contemplating upgrading its starting capacity from 30 Gbps in June 2010. Main One has an overall potential capacity of 2 Tbps. It has attracted “tier one customers” who are already invested in other cables.
So what will the connectivity price be? The answer to this question depends on how many cables exist in the market but it is safe to assume that there will be four cables by 2011. According to Logan, capacity will initially be “20% of today’s rates” based on today’s rates being around $5 million for an STM1.
“By 2011, prices will have come down again because there will clearly be more competition. However, WACS and ACE are consortium cables (primarily designed to serve their members) and the Glo-1 cable is self-feeding for Globacom. In both cases,Windows 7 Professional Sale, their idea of price will be very different from ours as an independent cable … There will be further falls of 50% a year and I fully expect that. Fibre markets around the world work on that basis.”
In terms of getting the bandwidth in and out of the continent, Main One has an alliance with Tata for European connections onward from their Portugal landing station and other strategic relationships for further afield. Unlike Seacom which has partners to deliver to POPs inland at the same price as at the landing station, Main One will rely on its customers to get the capacity to the inland countries. However,Office 2010 Professional X64 Key, Main One is constructing an inland route between Accra and Lagos with a partner to create a redundant ring.
“Our plan was always much simpler than Seacom’s. We wanted to reach the landing stations and we’re always expecting to maintain ourselves as a wholesaler. It will be better for the landlocked countries to build routes to get to the landing stations,” says Bernard Logan.
Bernard Logan has been involved in 12 fibre cables in the last 20 years. His previous job was for TWA,Microsoft Office 2010, a cable linking Pakistan to the UAE.
Read more on Telecommunications in Africa
Main One Cable | Globacom | SEACOM
Source(s): Balancing Act Africa