MTN Nigeria has launched a host of new services to run on the ultra-high capacity West African Cable System (WACS) submarine cable
The services, managed by MTN Business, promise high-quality Internet access to wholesalers such as ISPs, Internet bandwidth resellers and carriers, as well as mobile users across the country.
The 17,200km submarine cable project, which is worth US$100 million, takes its course from Europe through West Africa to South Africa.
“MTN has the advantage of a pre-existing extensive terrestrial Internet Protocol (IP) and broadband backbone infrastructure, enabling us to deliver high-grade Internet capacity across Nigeria,” said chief enterprise solutions officer for MTN Babatunde Osho.
Osho added that making use of the WACS cable would allow Internet users and businesses to boost their current Internet connections, as many businesses require more bandwidth now, compared to a couple of years ago.
Industry analysts now expect more Nigerian homes to have access to cheaper Internet services as the country’s bandwidth market is witnessing price wars occasioned by heightened competition in the submarine cable market.
The West African Cable System (WACS) is formed of a consortium of 11 network operators across 15 countries with MTN being the single biggest investor in the group.
WACS connects South Africa with the United Kingdom along the West Coast of Africa, landing in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, DR Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
