French telecommunications group Orange and connectivity and data centre services provider MainOne Cable have signed an agreement that will see Orange inject undisclosed major investments into the West African submarine cable system, MainOne.
Under the partnership, Orange will acquire additional telecommunications capacity from MainOne’s 7 000 km submarine cable system connecting Europe to Africa.
“This partnership with MainOne will allow us to strengthen our presence [in Africa], with new significant assets in West Africa,” says Orange wholesale and international networks CEO Jérome Barré.
The system, launched in 2010, has landing stations in Nigeria, Ghana and Portugal, with the new agreement providing for the construction and installation of two new branches and stations.
“These [new stations] will connect the [MainOne] cable to Dakar, in Senegal, and Abidjan, in Côte d’Ivoire, by mid-2019. Orange will be the owner of the cable station in Dakar,” he says, adding that the company’s investment will represent a “major milestone” for this project.
Early in September, MainOne announced an initial investment of $20-million in cable landing and data centre projects in Côte d’Ivoire within the next 24 months, with direct connectivity into Abidjan and Dakar expected to drive the growth of the digital economy and socioeconomic expansion.
Orange Group subsidiary Orange Marine will manage the installation of the two new branches.
“Thanks to this new cable connection, local populations will benefit from better connectivity, lower prices and access to new services. Orange will benefit from multiple terabits per second of additional bandwidth for the development of fixed and mobile data in Africa,” he says.
The cable extension provides an opportunity to improve connectivity and offer a broader range of services for both Orange Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal’s Sonatel, with neighbouring countries Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania benefiting from enhanced capacity.
MainOne also offers an alternative route that guarantees the protection of voice and data traffic passing through the other cables in the area – SAT3 WASC SAFE and ACE.
The partnership forms part of Orange’s multiservice strategy to position itself as an important partner in the continent’s digital transformation and develop the quality of service of its worldwide networks, while facilitating the use of new digital services for end-users.
“Through this new partnership, Orange is set to secure and improve direct access to high-speed broadband services in two of its most important countries, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire,” says Orange Middle East and Africa CEO Alioune Ndiaye.
“Orange’s ambition on international networks is both to meet the needs of our affiliates in their interconnection with the Internet world and to increase our leadership on the international data services wholesale market,” adds Barré.
Orange is investing heavily in building infrastructure and providing access to communication services over the long term, with a presence in 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East and 119-million customers as at June 30.
“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 liberalise the international bandwidth market, further support Orange and other wholesale customers, and ultimately result in improved digital services in the region,” concludes MainOne CEO Funke Opeke.