Dolphin Telecom to land $700m ACE cable in Nigeria by Q4

INVESTMENT profile in Nigeria's submarine cable market will get a major boost before the end of the year as Dolphin Telecom, a global communications carrier and operator of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable system in West Africa, unfolded plans to land a $700 million (N105 billion) fibre optic cable in the country.

Dolphin Telelecoms, which made this announcement on Wednesday at the NigeriaCom conference and exhibition in Lagos, said that the cable would further reposition Nigeria's broadband drive.

With this investment, ACE would join the likes of Main One Cable; Globacom with its Glo 1; and the West African Cable System from MTN, as submarine cable investors in Nigeria and West Africa.  Already, about N500 billion has been invested in the sub-sector by the operators in the country.

The ACE cable scheme was initiated by France Télécom-Orange and administered by a consortium of 16 operators to link Europe to the West Coast of Africa through an unprecedented connectivity.

The company claimed that the cable system uses the most advanced high-speed broadband fiber optic technology, which is a vector of social development and economic growth in Africa, reducing the digital divide.

Dolphin Telecom, with an overall investment on the ACE submarine cable of over  $70 million, the cable has full landing rights in Accra, Dakar, Lagos, Gambia and Senegal, and part of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) in Mauritania and Guinea Conakry covering 80 per cent of West African market. ACE will pass through UK, France, Portugal, Canary Islands, and have touch points in 21 African countries.

Managing Director of Dolphin Telecom, Abdel Mageid Abdel said: "With our extensive global network and strong reliability, Dolphin Telecom aims to be the driving force for the business community of West Africa functioning as a catalyst in extending global reach, high quality connectivity and unsurpassed levels of reliability and uptime".

The Chief Commercial Officer of the firm, Francis Okoh said ACE submarine cable would bring seamless connectivity to Africa with massive bandwidth to ensure affordable Internet access to the continent, adding that Dolphin Telecom is the second largest investor in ACE submarine cable system.  It will operate only in the wholesale market.

Okoh said Dolphin Telecom has built a massive datacentre in Agbara, Ogun State, completed its landing station in Lagos and is awaiting the landing of the ACE cable in the country which will complement other operators in the market like Glo 1, Main One Cable, WACS and SAT3 cables.

"We are partnering with telecom operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who will take the bandwidth to the retail market. We have built one of the largest datacentres in Africa. We want to do business the way business should be done. In terms of focus, we know what we want to do and we will redefine wholesale business. Our model is backend support not building base stations," he said.

According to him, Dolphin has partnered with Telecom Italia, Spaco Italia, Medallion Communications, Venema Advies Nigeria, Comsys Ghana, Expressor Telecommunications Group, Bluecloud, Ghana and Afcom, Sierra Leone among many others for collocation, supply of internet protocol (IP), building of data centre, capacity and loop agreement and others. Dolphin Telecom is a joint venture between Expresso Telecom Group and Haggar Trading UAE specialised in wholesale Internet Bandwidth for Carriers, ISPs and Enterprise customers.

source wireworld