West African leading connectivity and Data Centre solutions provider, MainOne Cable Company and French Telecoms, Orange have both struck a partnership that will see the French telecoms giant make an investment in the construction and installation of two new cable landing stations in West Africa.
https://twitter.com/Editor_Telecoms/status/1040532892143833088
These stations are set for Dakar, Senegal and Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire (both francophone countries), and would be connected to MainOne’s current submarine cable system comprising of a 7,000km submarine cable, which was launched in 2010.
The cable runs from Seixal in Portugal through Accra in Ghana to Lagos in Nigeria, with the capacity to land branches in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal, and Cote D’Ivoire.
GREAT NEWS FOR ORANGE
#ghana #cables #newbusinessopportunities #submarinecables MainOne’s current cable system comprises a 7,000km submarine cable, which was launched in 2010 and has landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portuga…https://t.co/BAamg9pyIk https://t.co/hjph4yqVpW— Ula Tinsley, MSc, CHNP (@ulatinsley) September 15, 2018
Speaking on the partnership, MainOne’s Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke says:
MainOne continues to lead the digital transformation of our sub-region by investing in affordable connectivity to drive economic development. 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 liberalize the international bandwidth market, further support Orange and other wholesale customers, and ultimately result in improved digital services in the region.
Better Connectivity and Growth Opportunities
With this new partnership, Orange would be acquiring additional capacity (multiple Terabits per second of additional bandwidth) for the development of fixed and mobile data in Africa, thereby confirming its position as a leading player in the submarine cable market and in the African telecommunications ecosystem.
Also, these would aid the development of quality service and facilitate the use of new digital services for users across Africa, as local populations will benefit from better connectivity, lower prices and access to new services. This improved connectivity and better range of services would not only be for Orange Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal’s Sonatel but neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, and Mauritania, will also benefit from the enhanced capacity.
The construction is set to be completed by mid-2019 and Orange will be the owner of the cable station in Dakar.
Another MainOne Partnership!
The partnership with Orange seems not to be the only one, as the company had previously announced a partnership with data centre supplier, Minkels, to construct three new data centres in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria –the 2nd phase to its 2015 project of constructing West Africa’s largest Tier III+ Data centre company (MDXi).
Press release: MainOne and Minkels announce expansion of West Africa’s largest Tier III+ Data centre company (MDXi). Read the full press release here: https://t.co/5Iu1Y98Ctw pic.twitter.com/yZ6yjTvGBa
— Minkels (@Minkels_HQ) September 6, 2018
As for the new Tier III data centres, they are to become operational by 2019 for the Sagamu, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana centres while the Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire centres would be by 2020.
Also, there would be an expansion of its Lekki data centre in Lagos.
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