Nigerian submarine fibre cable operator, Main One Cable Company, says it is planning expand its network to various West African countries via terrestrial cables.

Already, the company has extended its operations to Togo by virtue of an interconnection through Ghana.

Main One country director, Joseph Odoi, said the company has been engaging with the national exchange carrier of Burkina Faso Onatel and the principal telecoms provider of Senegal Sonatel with a view to forging strategic alliances that would enable undersea broadband cable operator leverage their existing terrestrial fibre backbones.

"MainOne’s connection into Togo is via NCBC and MTN’s West African terrestrial networks. The challenge has been the francophone divide. We have built strong relationships with Togotel, Onatel and Sonatel,” Odoi

“We are committed to building a regional network that would not only assist service providers deliver higher quality services but lower the cost of data and voice communications for enterprises and businesses with regional offices," said Odoi.

Odoi also revealed that Main One had connected Internet Exchange Points in Ghana and Nigeria to encourage local peering, thereby allowing service providers to interconnect with one another from the two countries.

“This is very critical to reduction of communications cost. This is because there is no need for carrying local traffic to a distant handover point and back again. There is no charge for local traffic exchange,” Odoi said.

Chief executive officer of the Main One Cable Company, Funke Opeke, said, Nigeria and Ghana shared similar business models and offered similar opportunities that company was looking at tapping into.

“Nigeria and Ghana share similar business models and are leading economies in West Africa. West Africa’s real Gross Domestic Product growth was 6.2 per cent in 2011. The growth is largely driven by Ghana and Nigeria that share similar language, culture and practice.

“They have similar business opportunities with great potential for regional integration of businesses. So, we are creating awareness with our solution on how to harness these potentials for optimal growth”, she stated.