MTN’s WACS to boost broadband capacity in Nigeria

The West African Cable System (WACS) being championed by MTN Group is expected to boost broadband capacity in Nigeria. This follows the roll out of a bouquet of services at the weekend in Lagos.

WACS is a consortium of 11 network operators across 15 countries with MTN being the single biggest investor in the group. WACS connects South Africa with the United Kingdom along the West Coast of Africa, landing in South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

The chief enterprise solutions officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Babatunde Osho, confirmed in a press statement made available to ITRealms noted that the 17,200 kilometres (km) submarine cable system service was made commercially available in May, 2012.

In Nigeria, he assured that MTN is now ready offer large organisations and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) reliable high capacity connectivity for all their needs.

“We have capacity to provide high quality, low latency internet access to wholesalers such as ISPs – Internet Service Providers, Internet Bandwidth Resellers and Carriers, as well as end-users anywhere in the country,” he said.

Osho also explained that WACS has 15 landing stations along its route, putting MTN in a vantage position to deliver International Private Leased Circuits to additional locations worldwide.

He pointed out that MTN has a unique advantage which no other cable has, of a pre-existing extensive terrestrial Internet Protocol (IP) and broadband backbone infrastructure, enabling the company to deliver high grade and highly-available Internet capacity to anywhere and everywhere in Nigeria.

Osho expressed the belief that WACS would bring the much-needed boost to the growth of many businesses whose requirements for data have continued to be on the rise in the last few years.

MTN Business, he assured, would continue to provide world class ICT solutions that would enable large corporations and small and medium scale enterprises, serve their customers better.

“The coming of WACS is yet another way of keeping our promises,” Osho declares.

Remmy Nweke
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