West Africa Cable System (WACS), the submarine communications cable linking South Africa with the United Kingdom along the West Coast of Africa is planning an aggressive entry strategy including significant reduction in price of bandwidth, a move sure to spark a price war over the now burgeoning broadband market, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can now reveal.
Though WACS is expected to be completed early next year, it is already sounding notes of warning to other cable systems with footprints in Nigeria to brace up for tougher race for the soul of the market.
The cable is expected to land in the following African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
With the market now disrupted with the arrival of Main One and Glo1, WACS on completion is hoping to join the frenzy that will ultimately lead to the much anticipated broadband revolution.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that WACS is baiting potential customers (internet service providers (ISPs), backhaul providers and telecom operators) with mouth watering offers including bandwidth for as low as $10 per mega byte.
This is more than 3000 per cent reduction in the current prices being offered by existing cable system providers.
In the marketing information sent to some customers, WACS said that its design capacity is at least 3.84 Tbps, meaning faster and better internet experience.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that WACS would be able to sell at this revolutionary price because the initiative is not for profit making, as most of the capacity are for members of the consortium.
The consortium has been granted license by Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to land the undersea cable in Nigeria
The cable system aims to provide operators who are members of the consortium capacity for delivering quality services to their subscribers while it can dispense the excess capacity at give away price.
Mr. Mohammed Rudman, managing director, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, said that the price war in the business of bandwidth is synonymous with competition in the sector.
He added that this will in turn make broadband service affordable and assist in resuscitating ailing ISPs.
Though, WACS’s proposal is still on paper, Main One and Glo1 are toppling the existing pricing model with rates as low as $300 per mega byte.
Interestingly, before Main One and Glo1, which are two home grown cable systems, price of bandwidth was as high as $800 per mega byte.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the reason for the prohibitive cost was because the bulk of the country‘s Internet traffic, as found in most parts of the African continent, depends on satellite connections; they are slower and costlier than fibre optic links between the United States and Europe, up to Asia.
Propelled by desire the satisfy capacity-starved people of the African continent, Main One, Glo1 and WACS have invested some $1.4 billion to hasten the broadband revolution.
Main One of Main Street Technologies has reportedly invested about $240million on its 700 kilometre submarine cable system, which runs from Portugal to Nigeria and Ghana, branching out to Morocco, the Canary Islands, Senegal and Cote d’Ivoire.
Globacom owners of Glo1 said that between $600million and $800milion has gone into the 9,800-km Glo 1 submarine fibre cable with 16 landing points in Europe, North and West Africa.
Elsewhere, $600m had been invested in the WACS promoted by MTN, Telkom and 10 other telecoms operators.
Broadband: WACS Battles Main One, Glo 1 with Price
