Main One internet services excite users
By MARTIN EKPEKE
With a click on the mouse, you begin to watch video from YouTube,
as you also click the mouse; you begin to watch CNN live. This was
what internet users experience recently in Lagos when Main One
Cable Company, Nigeria’s first private submarine cable company
launched its ‘Feel the impact promo’. The promo was aimed at
giving internet users a first- hand experience of Main One super
fast broadband internet connectivity now available in Nigeria.
The entry of Main One Cable Company ends the sole dominance of
SAT-3 cable owned by state-run telcos many of which have been
privatized. SAT-3 was expensive and provided less expansive
access.
But the $250 millionMain One cable which connects many West Africa
countries has more than five times the capacity of the old SAT-3
and has also set the tone to lower the cost of wholesale internet
access in a region where access has been notoriously pricey.
The Chief Executive Officer of Main One Cable Ms. Funke Opeke said
the company decided to embark on the promo which gives each user
two hours free to browse the internet, so as to let internet users
know the kind of broadband capacity Main One Cable offers. She
said the cable delivers more than ten times the broadband capacity
of SAT-3, Nigeria sole existing undersea cable, and twenty times
the entire satellite capacity of sub-Saharan Africa.
The benefit of Main One’s cable has been felt in several sectors
including education, health and entertainment to help drive growth
and create job opportunities all over Africa. Also, the new marine
cable is expected to help network expansion, cut the cost of
communication and fuel explosive growth in mobile broadband in
Africa over the next few years, particular Nigeria, which has
overtaken South Africa to become the continent’s largest mobile
telecoms market.
Internet connectivity in Nigeria, Africa most populous nation of
150 million people, is expensive and unreliable and many
businesses are forced to rely on satellite communications.
“The Main One enhanced internet capacity will bring more
competition among big telecom operators because it has been able
to bring down prices of bandwidth by 50%, which is obvious in the
cost of blackberry subscription.” said Opeke.
