Name and Location
Main One cable project, West Africa.

Project Description
Main One is an open-access submarine cable system, which spans 14 000 km and provides international and Internet connectivity to countries on the West Coast of Africa between Portugal and South Africa.

The project has been designed in two phases.

The dual fibre pair, 1,28 Tbit/s dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) project connects Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal in phase 1, with onward connectivity through Portugal to Europe, Asia and the Americas, and connectivity extending to Angola and South Africa in the second phase of the project.

Some 6 900 km of submarine fibre-optic cable has been laid between Seixal, in Portugal, Accra, in Ghana, and Lagos, in Nigeria, forming part of the first phase of the project. The system is based on trunk-and-branch topology and includes branching units to the Canary Islands, Morocco, Senegal, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Côte d'Ivoire.

The cable provides international capacity into a region that has experienced excessive growth in teledensity in recent years, but which remains constrained in terms of access to international cable capacity for global connectivity. The cable delivers high-speed bandwidth of 1,92 Tb/s to the West African shores, achieving many commercial firsts.

The available bandwidth will also be leased wholesale to telecom operators and Internet service providers on an open-access basis, encouraging competitive pricing and a large customer base.

Value
Phase one of the project cost an estimated $240-million, while the entire project is valued at $400-million.

Duration
The project was completed in two years and came on stream in July 2010.

Client
MainOne Cable Company. The cable is privately owned by Main Street Technologies, international investors such as Africa Finance Corporation and the Pan-African Infrastructure Development Fund, and a number of Nigerian banks.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
African Development Bank (AfDB) ($66-million finance); Tyco Telecommunications (turnkey supply contract); Pioneer Consulting (project management and engineering); and Alcatel-Lucent (maintenance contract for phase one).

Latest Developments
The Main One cable and the Seacom fibre-optic cable have interconnected in Europe. The newly connected cables will launch capacity services from point of presence (PoP) to PoP, from synchronous transport module level 1 connection and above.

The partnership extends the Main One and Seacom networks to create a system that offers connection between any of their respective PoPs all around Africa, between South Africa and Nigeria.

As with the Main One and Seacom cables themselves, the joint solution is provided on an open-access basis and is immediately available, providing customers with a timing advantage ahead of the completion of other planned systems around the African continent.

On Budget and on Time?
The cable officially went live on July 22, 2010.

Contact Details for Project Information
AfDB, tel +216 71 10 3900 or email afdb@afdb.org.
MainOne Cable Company, tel +234 1 448 9500 or email info@mainonecable.com.
Pioneer Consulting, tel +1 978 357 3605.
Tyco Telecommunications, tel +1 973 656 8000 or fax +1 973 656 8131.