NITEL Loses $6m to SAT-3 Shut Down

Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), part owners of South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT-3), has lost some $6million in the last 18 months due to a cut at the Nigerian end of the undersea cable infrastructure, according to findings by Nigeria CommunicationsWeek.

Nigeria through NITEL holds 8.39% of SAT-3/WASC/SAFE which links countries along the west coast of Africa to each other and on to Europe and Asia,

The cut on SAT-3 occurred on June 2013 in the process of reclaiming land for the Lagos State initiative of a new town known as Eko Atlantic project.

Eko Atlantic project is now close to the ‘Beach Manhole’ of the infrastructure- the first landing point of an undersea cable.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek gathered that the shutdown of SAT-3 has resulted in the loss of bandwidth capacity estimated at 67 STM-1 and of this capacity only 15 STM-1 are demanded by players in the industry from the infrastructure.

Mr. Anurag Garg, managing director, Direct on PC (DoPC), said that NITEL may have lost $300,000 in monthly revenue during the period the infrastructure was inactive.

He noted that the impact of SAT-3 is not felt in the market because most organisations and Internet service providers (ISPs) subscribe to more than one undersea cable operator except for government agencies where it takes time to change from one operator to another.

Apart from SAT-3, Nigeria is swimming in an ocean of bandwidth with the avalanche of undersea cable systems, each with landing points on the shores of the country.

There are various undersea cable projects including Main One and Glo 1; two home grown companies; the West African Cable System (WACS), an initiative operated by nine countries (including Nigeria’s MTN Group); and the ACE submarine cable system covering Nigeria and other countries.

Engr. Lanre Ajayi, president, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), said that “If it were some years back when we relied much on SAT-3, the impact would have been felt by many, but today not many people are aware that Sat-3 is down.”

“This is why it not good for government to be in business, if SAT-3 is own by an entrepreneur it would have been repaired and get back to business long ago,” he noted.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek learnt that repair of a cut on undersea cable system takes a maximum of three weeks.

This involves, renting of a cable ship from Cape Town in South Africa which is the only country where the ship is available in Africa; processing of custom papers; and obtaining approvals from NIMASA and other agencies to allow the ship to come into the country’s waters.

This SAT3/WASC/SAFE cable system was once hailed as technology and commercial breakthrough of unparalleled significance for Africa, offering a faster, more efficient trading channel between the continent and international markets.