Main One, Phase 3 link up on broadband

By Prince Osuagwu

Two top indigenous telcos,Main One Cable Company and Phase3 Telecom, have formed a business pact to increase broadband Internet penetration in Nigeria and the West African sub-region.

Main One owns and operates West Africa’s first privately-owned undersea communication cable that runs from Europe to Africa with landing points along the West African coast including Nigeria and Ghana, while Phase3 Telecom is a national long distance operator and West Africa’s first privately owned aerial fibre optic cable deployed on high-voltage electricity power lines.

Under the partnership, the firms will be offering Nigerians high capacity broadband Internet services at affordable costs using Phase3 Telecom’s extensive aerial fibre network and Main One’s huge bandwidth deployed through its undersea cable.

CEO of Phase3 Telecom, Stanley Jegede said, “When two smart companies work together, they create smarter results. Today, the impact of Information and Communications Technologies on globalization has increased dramatically, and impacted positively on the developmental process in Africa.

We believe that a robust and reliable open access network will constitute a platform for efficient eGovernment, eVoting, eCommerce, ePayment, eBanking, eLearning and media applications, thereby increasing sustainable human, political, economic and social development.

“That is why the Nigerian government emphasizes the importance of multi-stakeholders’ partnerships for broadband development in the country and, thereby, achieving universal access. Phase3 Telecom’s partnership will contribute to broadband capacity building in West Africa.”

CEO of Main One, Ms. Funke Opeke, said the determination of Main One to make its broadband Internet services ubiquitous and available to many more Nigerians, was the basis for the agreement between the two companies. She assured Nigerians that together with Phase3 Telecom, the fibre infrastructure of both companies will broaden the reach of broadband Internet connectivity.