By Main One

Main One Cable Company has concluded the shore-end laying of its undersea fiber optic cables in Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana respectively. The shore-end cable laying is a critical intermediary procedure to install the undersea cables on the shores of countries in which the cable system is expected to berth, in preparation for the end-to-end laying of the full stretch of the fiber optic cable from its origin in Portugal.

According to Funke Opeke, Chief Executive Officer of Main One Cable Company, “the successful completion of our shore-end cable laying operations in Lagos and Accra, again signposts the seriousness with which this project is being executed and our commitment to ensuring that we deliver on our target completion date of June 2010.”

The successful completion of its shore-end cable laying operations is yet another formidable and transparent landmark of the progress being recorded by the pioneering undersea cable network. Earlier on, Main One cable was the first private company to receive submarine cable landing licenses from both the Nigerian Communications Commission and Ghana’s National Communications Authority.

Main One embarked on undersea route survey operations last February and by June had concluded the survey operations. In June as well, it secured commitment from multilateral financial institutions as well as Nigerian banks for all of the financing it requires for the first phase of the cable project.

Opeke stated that “we continue to be delighted at the steady pace of work on the Main One project,” adding that “manufacturing of all the system components are progressing well and we are on track to meet our deployment schedules.

She added that construction work on the Global Network Operating Center for the cable company, which is sited in Lagos, Nigeria, is recording impressive progress in much the same way as the cable landing station in Accra, Ghana.

Main One cable will, when it is finalized, provide 1.92 Terabits per second capacity, which is far more than currently available capacity on any pre-existing undersea cable networks in the West Africa sub-region.

Very importantly, Main One Cable will provide wholesale services on an open access basis to all information and communications technology (ICT) players in West Africa. The open access model, Opeke explained, implies that broadband capacity will be availed all operators and service providers in an open and non-discriminatory manner. “In addition to the capacity building we bring by driving the expansion of critical ICT and internet networking technologies into the region, the Main One project, on completion will create a strong multiplier effect for economic growth,” said Opeke.