Cable Industry News
Emerging submarine cable may drive down call rates
Friday, 25, June, 2010
Submarine cable infrastructure on the Nigerian coastline would enhance access to information through high quality and competitive telecommunications services.Going by the increasing number of submarine cable systems on the Nigerian coastline, telecommunications subscribers in the country may soon pay less for international calls. Though Nigeria’s internet penetration is still in its lowest ebb, the much anticipated commencement of operations by Main One submarine cable next month would, indeed, crash the cost of internet access, bringing about the desirable digital revolution that the country has been yearning for.
Industry watchers say that the system would also contribute to an immediate 50 percent drop in the price of bandwidth in Nigeria and Ghana, and continued price reduction was anticipated over time. BusinessDay gathered that GSM operator, MTN Nigeria, is the largest single user of bandwidth in the country. As at today, the company’s bandwidth demand is put at 2 SPMs.Also, other telecom operators, internet service providers (ISPs), and financial institutions use varying amount of the remaining bandwidth to provide services to the end users.
