African investment in undersea cable hits $1.4bn
Investment in undersea telecommunications transmission cables is expected to hit over $1.4bn with the emergence on Monday that a Nigerian firm, Mainstreet Technologies is to build its own undersea cable at a cost of $300m.
The project, which is conceived to rival SAT-3, a transatlantic transmission system sponsored mainly telecom incumbents in 36 member investment groups led by Telkom of South Africa in one of the new cable projects that have come on board since 2001.
The project called MaIN OnE, is coming on the heels of four others namely Glo-1, which is costing $150m, the East African Submarine System, which is costing $200m and - The East African Marine System, which is also costing $150m.
The $600m investment in SAT3 fibre, (whose full acronym is SAT3/WASC/SAFE) and goes from Portugal to South Africa, and moves out across the Indian Ocean to Asia is still the biggest.
The cable system is divided into two sub-systems, SAT3/WASC in the Atlantic Ocean with landing points in several West African countries, and SAFE in the Indian Ocean. The combined length of the SAT3/WASC/SAFE system segments measures 28, 800km and the life of the cable is to operate over the next 25 years.
The investment could have reached $1.7b but for the withdrawal of Herakles, an American firm that planned to build a $300m undersea cable in East Africa and parts of Southern Africa.
The firm withdrew from the project, following an announcement by the South African Government that it would not allow it land on its shore except the ownership of the project was mainly led by African investors.
The investment in the international undersea transmission cable had become an investment attraction due to the deficient infrastructure in many African countries. This had resulted in persistent low quality of telecommunications services and an unacceptably high cost where such services are available. Expectations were that SAT-3 would have provided the needed solution to these, but with the high prices offered by the consortium, many other firms began looking at building their own cables. When these projects are completed the dependence of many African countries on satellite for bandwidth is expected to drastically reduce. Also, internet access is to improve drastically and new telecommunication services would be developed and introduced into the continent.
The project, which is conceived to rival SAT-3, a transatlantic transmission system sponsored mainly telecom incumbents in 36 member investment groups led by Telkom of South Africa in one of the new cable projects that have come on board since 2001.
The project called MaIN OnE, is coming on the heels of four others namely Glo-1, which is costing $150m, the East African Submarine System, which is costing $200m and - The East African Marine System, which is also costing $150m.
The $600m investment in SAT3 fibre, (whose full acronym is SAT3/WASC/SAFE) and goes from Portugal to South Africa, and moves out across the Indian Ocean to Asia is still the biggest.
The cable system is divided into two sub-systems, SAT3/WASC in the Atlantic Ocean with landing points in several West African countries, and SAFE in the Indian Ocean. The combined length of the SAT3/WASC/SAFE system segments measures 28, 800km and the life of the cable is to operate over the next 25 years.
The investment could have reached $1.7b but for the withdrawal of Herakles, an American firm that planned to build a $300m undersea cable in East Africa and parts of Southern Africa.
The firm withdrew from the project, following an announcement by the South African Government that it would not allow it land on its shore except the ownership of the project was mainly led by African investors.
The investment in the international undersea transmission cable had become an investment attraction due to the deficient infrastructure in many African countries. This had resulted in persistent low quality of telecommunications services and an unacceptably high cost where such services are available. Expectations were that SAT-3 would have provided the needed solution to these, but with the high prices offered by the consortium, many other firms began looking at building their own cables. When these projects are completed the dependence of many African countries on satellite for bandwidth is expected to drastically reduce. Also, internet access is to improve drastically and new telecommunication services would be developed and introduced into the continent.
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