Main One Cable: Hope of Cheap Telecom Services Dashed
- By Abimbola Tooki
- Published August 16th, 2010
- News
- Unrated
THE impact of the Nigerian-owned Main One undersea cable on telecommunications pricing may not be felt in Nigeria in the short term as has been canvassed by the promoters of the business. Main One is a privately owned system that runs on the African West Coast from Nigeria and Ghana, and runs for about 7,000km with initial landings in Portugal. The system has a capacity of 1.92 Terabits per second.
Mike van den Berg, chief executive officer of Gateway Communications, said there is not enough business on the continent to support these cables, despite expectations that it would aid the provision of cheap internet services in the country.
According to Dr Hamadoun Touré, International Telecom Union’s (ITU) secretary general, the relation between cable connections and end-user price is not always straightforward. While competition usually drives down international prices for bandwidth, national bandwidth prices continue to remain high, usually due to a limited number of providers in the domestic market.
Touré said the landing of these cables should ultimately bring down the high prices paid by internet users in Nigeria, as well as elsewhere in Africa, “but how soon this can happen remains to be seen giving the experiences in other parts of the world.”
He advised the Nigerian Communications Commission on the need to work with the operators and African telecommunication organizations to make sure reductions in the cost of international bandwidth feed through into lower prices for end-users in Nigeria. Etisalat Nigeria is one of the earliest subscribers to the cable.
Mike van den Berg, chief executive officer of Gateway Communications, said there is not enough business on the continent to support these cables, despite expectations that it would aid the provision of cheap internet services in the country.
According to Dr Hamadoun Touré, International Telecom Union’s (ITU) secretary general, the relation between cable connections and end-user price is not always straightforward. While competition usually drives down international prices for bandwidth, national bandwidth prices continue to remain high, usually due to a limited number of providers in the domestic market.
Touré said the landing of these cables should ultimately bring down the high prices paid by internet users in Nigeria, as well as elsewhere in Africa, “but how soon this can happen remains to be seen giving the experiences in other parts of the world.”
He advised the Nigerian Communications Commission on the need to work with the operators and African telecommunication organizations to make sure reductions in the cost of international bandwidth feed through into lower prices for end-users in Nigeria. Etisalat Nigeria is one of the earliest subscribers to the cable.
