Nigcomsat, Main One Launch Teleport

Nigerian Communications Satellite (Nigcomsat) Limited in partnership with Main One Cable Company has launched Teleport to boost access to bandwidth by last mile Internet users.

The hub, which is located within the premises of Main One Cable in Lekki, Lagos will significantly reduce the dearth of bandwidth in rural areas especially, thereby providing services to the underserved or not served areas in West Africa and African nations, where NigComSat-1R has footprints.

Prof. Turner Isoun, chairman, Nigcomsat Board of Directors who led a delegation of some board members said this is a breakthrough for the country as the relationship will greatly enhance access to the internet via broadband and create dividends of democracy for the people.

Isoun, a former Science and Technology minister, said “the two indigenous companies decided on this cooperation for the benefit of our people.”

Besides this, the partnership will augment capacity building in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Above all, it will lead to a major crash in the cost of bandwidth which has been on the high side.

Main One Cable and Nigcomsat will serve their customers seamlessly. Nigcomsat will carry traffic from the Teleport to far flung places where cable cannot get, via satellite.

Isoun said this is a win-win situation for both companies, the end-users and the country.

Funke Opeke, chief executive officer of Main One Cable said this relationship will lead to a significant price crash “to the benefit of our end-users especially those in the last mile domain which cable can hardly reach.”

The hub consists of two satellite dishes, a major 6.3 metre hub able to transmit information to locations across Nigeria and another smaller dish, which serves as a tracking antenna to keep the hub aligned with the satellite.

The Nigcomsat hub at Main One brings together Main One’s submarine cable network and IP next generation network with Nigcomsat’s satellite technology.

It is based on the agreement signed between the two companies in late 2011 whereby Main One will provide bulk Internet connectivity while Nigcomsat will provide last mile connectivity to distribute such services around the country.

Both projects are home grown out of Nigeria and designed to broaden internet access and reduce the cost of accessing the Internet across all parts of Nigeria.

Nigcomsat’s role in this regard is particularly important because the country lacks a national backbone network and is thus, overtly reliant on networks controlled by the GSM providers for Internet access.

Nigcomsat’s satellite provides an alternate distribution platform that is as accessible in rural parts of the country as it is in metro areas and is quick to deploy without having to undertake hundreds or thousands of kilometers of civil works that the deployment of fiber optic networks require.

By partnering with Main One, Nigcomsat is now positioned to start having a major impact on deploying broadband services to all parts of Nigeria, especially rural areas or areas not as well connected.

It is expected that with this partnership, we will start to see a lot of government agencies and academic institutions spread around the diverse areas of the country start to come online.

These developments are poised to continue to drive growth in the ICT sector and further economic development of Nigeria.