MainOne subsea cable lands in Senegal

The news was confirmed via a post on Twitter on MainOne’s official account.

“We are happy to announce the landing of the MainOne submarine cable into #Senegal in partnership with @CI_Orange & @GroupeSonatel. The cable lands months ahead of schedule aboard the Pierre de Fermat vessel, arriving from Brest, France on August 29^th,” read the post.

“With this new landing, the #MainOnesubmarinecable will be directly connected into four of West Africa’s largest countries, being #Nigeria #Cameroon #Ghana and now #Senegal and will empower the countries’ digital ecosystems, drive connectivity and improve internet enabled access.”

The announcement follows the news of a partnership between MainOne and Orange in September 2018 for the construction and installation of two new branches and stations. One in Dakar in Senegal and the other in Abidjan in the Côte d’Ivoire due for completion by mid-2019. Orange is the owner of the cable station in Dakar, while Orange Marine, a 100% subsidiary of the Orange Group, has been chosen to manage the installation of these two new branches. The extension is set to improve connectivity and offer a broader range of services for both Orange Côte d’Ivoire & Sonatel, the incumbent operator in Senegal.

A few days after the deal with Orange was confirmed, SubCom (then TE SubCom) was named as the cable vendor for the project. SubCom said that it would equip the new cable branches with its WSS ROADM technology enabling MainOne and its partners to match the capacity in each branch to the various market needs and thereby optimising use of the cable. In addition, SubCom will light the new branches with Ciena’s transmission equipment that allows for increased flexibility and capacity.