Installation of the Nigeria-Cameroon Submarine Cable System (NCSCS), which started in July 2015, has been completed and the system has now gone live.
The infrastructure was built following a tripartite partnership between leading telecoms and network service provider, MainOne, Cameroun’s Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and Huawei Marine Networks.
The submarine cable system which connects Lagos in Nigeria and Kribi in Cameroon was built to address increasing demand for reliable broadband connectivity in Cameroon. It is also a key component of the country’s plan to provide internet access to its citizens via a National Broadband Network.
The six-pair 1,100 kilometer repeater submarine cable system is expected to deliver up to 12.8 Tbps to broadband users in Cameroon and was lit with a 40 GB capacity from Day 1.
The system is also expected to boost Cameroon’s extremely low broadband penetration which is currently estimated at five percent (5%).
“The NCSCS system enables us to provide users with faster bandwidth connectivity at a significantly lower cost,”
General Manager of Cameroon Telecommunications Corporation (CAMTEL), David Nkoto Emane, said in a press release.
“By providing direct connection to Nigeria, the cable system will also serve to enhance Cameroon’s position as the major bandwidth hub in the region and internationally to Europe and beyond,”
he added.
MainOne’s Regional Executive for West Africa, Kazeem Oladepo, corroborated this assertion.
“Nigeria’s South-South region and Cameroon now have the platform to leverage the same quality of access to the Internet to catalyze social, economic and technological development,”
he quipped.
“As part of our strategy to boost West Africa’s economic and commercial development, we will continue to make deliberate and significant investments in connectivity projects that will facilitate increased access to broadband,”
he added.
The submarine cable system was built with branching units for extension of its connectivity into Nigeria’s Escravos in Delta State, Qua Iboe in Akwa Ibom State, and Bonny Island in Rivers State.
Also, plans for a distribution hub in Port Harcourt has been concluded. The hub will be designed to bridge the technology gap between the South-South and the rest of Nigeria.