Media News - Monday, July 05, 2010
Undersea cable set to boost West Africa broadband
An eagerly-awaited submarine cable linking West Africa to Europe has gone live, paving the way for cheaper and more reliable Internet access in one of the world’s fastest-growing telecoms markets, its operators said Friday. The 7,000 km fibre optic Main One Cable runs from Portugal to Nigeria and Ghana, and also branches out to Morocco, the Canary Islands, Senegal and Ivory Coast. The Main One Cable Company says it delivers more than ten times the broadband capacity of the South Atlantic Terminal (SAT-3), Nigeria’s sole existing undersea cable, and 20 times the entire satellite capacity of sub-Saharan Africa. “The ramifications of Main One’s cable will be felt in all sectors - from education, to health, to entertainment, helping drive economic growth and creating job opportunities all over Africa,” the company said in a statement. An expanding network and falling prices are expected to fuel explosive growth in mobile broadband in Africa over the next few years, particularly Nigeria, which has overtaken South Africa to become the continent’s largest mobile telecoms market. Internet connectivity in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of 140 million people with 5 percent broadband penetration levels, is expensive and unreliable and many business are forced to rely on satellite communications. (Reuters)
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