INTELLIGENT CABLING
MainOne and Orange sign deal
to boost Internet connectivity
in West Africa
rench Telecoms company,
Orange, and leading West
African Connectivity and Data
Centre services provider, MainOne, have
struck a partnership that will see the
French telecoms giant co-invest in two new
cable landing stations in Dakar, Senegal and
Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
The broadband infrastructure provider
will also provide additional capacity via
its 7,000km cable system from Europe
to Africa with landing stations in Nigeria,
Ghana and Portugal, reinforcing the
position of both companies in the African
telecommunications ecosystem.
Thanks to this new cable connection,
several countries in West Africa will benefit
from better connectivity, lower prices and
access to new services.
Orange will benefit from multiple
terabits per second of additional bandwidth
for the development of fixed and mobile
data in Africa to meet the increasing
demands for Internet access via 3G and
4G networks. More specifically, this cable
extension is an opportunity to improve
connectivity and offer a broader range of
services. In addition, neighbouring Burkina
Faso, Mali and Mauritania will benefit from
enhanced capacity.
“MainOne continues to lead the Digital
Transformation of our sub-region by
investing in affordable connectivity to drive
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INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
Issue 19
Orange and MainOne have struck a partnership that will
see the French telecoms giant co-invest in two new cable
landing stations in Senegal and Ivory Coast
economic development,” said MainOne Chief
Executive Officer, Funke Opeke.
“Our objective is to bridge the digital
divide between and within West Africa and
the rest of the world. We are committed to
deepening broadband penetration across
West Africa and believe our investments
in technologically advanced subsea
infrastructure will continue to liberalise the
international bandwidth market, further
support Orange and other wholesale
customers, and ultimately result in improved
digital services in the region.”
Alioune Ndiaye, Chief Executive Officer
of Orange Middle East and Africa, added:
“The development of new digital services
in Africa has fostered huge social and
economic developments over the past
few years. As barriers to access continue
to fall with improved networks and more
affordable equipment, Orange, as part of
its multi-service strategy, is seeking to
position itself as an important partner in the
continent’s Digital Transformation. Through
this new partnership, Orange is set to secure
and improve direct access to high-speed
broadband services in two of its most
important countries.”
The MainOne Submarine Cable System
links West Africa with Europe, bringing
ultra-fast broadband in the region. It runs
from Seixal in Portugal through Accra in
Ghana to Lagos in Nigeria, with capacity to
land branches in Morocco, Canary Islands,
Senegal and Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire). The
cable system, which now has an upgradable
capacity of over 10 TBPS, first went live in
July 2010, becoming the first private subsea
cable to bring open-access, broadband
capacity to West Africa.
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