MainOne has partnered with the World Bank to provide fibre optic infrastructure in Burkina Faso.

As a landlocked country, Burkina Faso has faced difficulties in accessing world-class connectivity and maintaining ubiquitous broadband internet access due to the lack of infrastructure

Telecommunications firm MainOne, in collaboration with the World Bank, will provide bulk connectivity services to a consortium of operators in Burkina Faso for the next three years.

Under the auspices of the PAV-Burkina Cooperative, MainOne was chosen by the Burkinabe government (with financial backing from the World Bank) to provide PAV-Burkina with bulk capacity to nodes in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso.

In a statement released to the media, the partners say as a landlocked country, Burkina Faso has faced difficulties in accessing world-class connectivity and maintaining ubiquitous broadband internet access due to the lack of infrastructure and the reluctance of major operators to explore operational broadband service delivery models favourable for socio-economic development of the country.

To address this challenge, the PRICAO Initiative was created by the Burkina Faso Government, in collaboration with a consortium of ISPs and mobile operators.

The purpose of the initiative is to facilitate the creation of virtual landing points as a platform for the extension of broadband network coverage in the country, with a view to improving the quality of connectivity in the region; increase internet penetration and improve the performance of ICT services.

In order to set up an independent and competitive framework for connectivity services, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Postal Services (MDENP) with the support of the World Bank, created a Cooperative Consortium (SCOOP PAV-BURKINA).

The consortium brings together key electronic service stakeholders to deliver a turnkey project that will provide fibre optic transmission infrastructure between Ouagadougou and Dakola, to be delivered in two phases within a three-year period.

An excerpt from the statement reads: “The World Bank’s 20 million dollars plus support of the PRICAO initiative, has enabled the Burkinabe State to set up a 200km fibre optic transmission link from Ouagadougou to Dakola. The first phase of the project commenced in 2018, with the initial stage providing capacity in Ouagadougou over 3 years. Phase 2 of the project will commence in quarter two of year 2020 and will lead to the provision of additional internet capacity in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso within another 3-year period. MainOne, has been selected to deliver Phase 2 and will provide 10 Gbps broadband capacity in Ouagadougou, together with 5Gbps in Bobo Dioulasso. Prior to this, MainOne had been selected in 2019 through a restricted bids process and currently deliver an additional capacity of 2.5Gbps to Ouagadougou to strengthen and secure the capacity initially delivered in Phase I of the project.”

Leveraging their extensive partnership with key stakeholders in the region, MainOne has been able to provide its services in Burkina through a diverse terrestrial fibre optic infrastructure connecting its landing point in Accra to the Burkinabe border town of Paga, where the organisation has made significant investments by establishing a physical point of presence specifically to address the need of the Burkina market.

MainOne contends that today it offers world-class quality service with 99.95% service availability and has helped BURKINA PAV members achieve up to 50% reduction in the cost per megabit through the bulk broadband connectivity purchase model.