Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Cable of the Future (For Africa, anyway)

7,000 kilometers is a long way. In fact, 7,000 kilometers is only slightly less than the distance between Cape Town and the Nile Delta; 7,000 kilometers is also the approximate length of the Main One Subsea Cable. See the map below:


What is the Main One Subsea Cable, you might ask? It is an underwater fiber optic cable that will revolutionize telecommunications throughout western Africa. This is no small feat and phase one of this Cable which stretches from Portugal to Nigeria and Ghana, will cost roughly USD 268 million in construction costs alone. However, once it is implemented, it will increase available bandwidth by up to ten times.

The AfDB officially announced its financial support for this project on 28 September of this year with a USD 61 million senior loan.