Sea cable operators Main One and Seacom said on Wednesday that they had interconnected their West and East African Cable Systems, offering connection between any point of presence between South Africa and Nigeria.
The joint solution would be provided on an open-access basis and was immediately available, providing customers with a timing advantage ahead of the completion of other planned systems around Africa.
Funke Opeke, Main One’s CEO, said: “While efforts to implement a physical cable between Nigeria and SA continue, we have joined our cables together in Europe to satisfy many of our customers’ immediate requirements for capacity between Nigeria and SA.”
Brian Herlihy, Seacom’s CEO, said: “We hold the view that a ring-type system around the entire continent is the best way to attain adequate redundancy while offering customers a comprehensive connectivity solution. The announcement today shows our determination to find a viable way to extend our system with partners who share our vision to build the African internet.”
Main One offers open access, wholesale broadband capacity in West Africa. Its submarine cable system commenced operations in July 2010, linking West Africa to the rest of the world via Portugal and the United Kingdom.
Seacom is a privately financed, developed and owned submarine fibre optic cable network providing broadband capacity to Africa through the sale of wholesale international bandwidth and associated services on an open-access basis since July 2009.
Stretching 17 000km along the eastern and southern African coastlines and onwards to India and Europe, the Seacom system connects many African countries including South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Djibouti and Ethiopia. — I-Net Bridge