The Main One Cable is a submarine communications cable stretching from Portugal to South Africa with landings along the route in various west African countries. On April 28, 2008, it was announced that Main Street Technologies has awarded a turnkey supply contract for the Main One Cable System to Tyco Telecommunications .
The cable system spans 14,000 km and provides additional capacity for international and Internet connectivity to countries between
Portugal and South Africa on the west coast of Africa. The submarine cable project was designed in two phases, both of which were scheduled for completion in May 2010. The dual fiber pair, 1.28- Tbit/s, DWDM project connects Nigeria, Ghana, and Portugal in Phase 1 with onward connectivity through Portugal to Europe ,
Asia and the Americas. The Phase 1 cable system spans 6,900 kilometres. Additional connectivity extending to Angola and South Africa occurred in the second phase of the project.
Main One provides international capacity into a region that has experienced explosive growth in tele-density in recent years, but which remains constrained with respect to access to international cable capacity for global connectivity. The system is being developed by Main Street Technologies headquartered in
Lagos . An October 10, 2008 press release states that the desk top study and engineering for the system has been completed. On July 22, 2010 the cable was launched.
Project management and engineering for the cable system has been contracted to specialist undersea consulting firm, Pioneer Consulting.
Submarine cable project which was designed in two phases are;
Main One – phase 1
The Main One Cable is an undersea cable system stretching from Portugal to South Africa with landings along the route in various west African countries.
Landing points
The Main One cable system has the following
landing points in operation in July 2010.
2.Main one phase 2
Casablanca , Morocco
Tenerife , Canary Islands
Dakar , Senegal
Abidjan , Côte d’Ivoire
Bonny , Nigeria
Libreville , Gabon
Boma , Democratic Republic of the Congo
Luanda , Angola
Cape Town, South Africa
Swakopmund , Namibia
Impact of Main One
Main One provides international capacity into a region that has experienced explosive growth in tele-density in recent years, but which remains constrained with respect to access to international cable capacity for global connectivity.
The Main One Cable system provides open access to regional telecom operators and Internet service providers at rates that are less than 20% of current international bandwidth prices in the region available via SAT3 or satellite service providers, according to the project’s organizers. Main Street says it will encourage local content development via skills transfer of critical networking technologies and job creation with the location of the network operational center (NOC) for the entire system in Nigeria.
Ownership
The cable is privately owned by Main Street Technologies, international investors like the
Africa Finance Corporation and the Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF) and a couple of Nigerian banks.
Construction time-line
On April 28, 2008, it was announced that Main Street Technologies had awarded a turnkey supply contract for the Main One Cable System to Tyco Telecommunications.
Owners of main one:
Main Street Technologies
CEO-Funke Opeke
Funke Opeke is a Nigerian electrical engineer, founder of Main Street Technologies and Chief Executive Officer of Main One Cable Company, a communications services company based in Lagos State, south-western Nigeria.
Born: Nigeria
Education: Columbia University and Obafemi Awolowo University
Landing points of main one
- Seixal , Portugal
- Lagos , Lagos State , Nigeria
- Accra , Ghana
- South Africa
Total length 14,000 km
Topology trunk and branch
Design capacity 1280 Gbit/s
Currently lit capacity n/a
Technology Fiber optics
Date of first use July 22, 2010