Highway Africa News Agency (Grahamstown)
Jonah Iboma
21 September 2007
Geneva — Investments by African firms in undersea telecoms transmission cables have reached a total just over $1.4 billion.
The new figure was reached following the announcement by a Nigerian firm, Mainstreet Technologies, that it would build its own undersea cable at a cost of $300 million (mn).
The project is conceived as a rival to SAT-3, a transatlantic transmission system sponsored mainly by telecoms firms led by Telkom of South Africa.
The latest project, called MaIN OnE, is coming on the heels of four others, namely Glo-1, which is estimated to cost $150mn; the East African Submarine System, $200mn; and the East African Marine System, $150mn.
However, the $600mn investment in the SAT-3 fibre optic cable that runs from Portugal to South Africa, and moves out across the Indian Ocean to Asia, is still the highest so far in the continent.
The cable system is divided into two sub-systems, SAT-3/WASC in the Atlantic Ocean with landing points in several West African countries, and SAFE in the Indian Ocean. The combined length of the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE system segment is 28, 800km and the lifespan of the cable is over 25 years.
The investment could have reached $1.7bn but for the withdrawal of Herakles, an American firm that planned to build a $300mn 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 landing rights on its shores unless the ownership of the project was led by African investors.
Investment in the international undersea transmission cables has become an attraction due to the deficient infrastructure in many African countries.
The infrastructure challenge results in persistent low quality of telecommunications services and an unacceptably high cost where such services are available.
Commenting on the development, the chairman of Junisat, Mr. Gboyega Ojuri, noted that more investments in such facilities were necessary in view of the increased need for Internet capacity in the continent.
He said with the advent of new services such as Internet Protocol Television, online video streaming, demand for bandwidth could only continue to increase.
He added that the only way this could be met was through improved transmission systems. Ojuri further said that even current investments might not be enough to increase internet and other telecoms services in Nigeria and other African countries.
He said that undersea cables offered good investment returna for owners given the fact that they could be used for longer periods than satellites
Jonah Iboma HANA correspondent in Lagos - Nigeria
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