Main One is an open access submarine cable system, which when completed will span 14,000 kilometres and will provide international and Internet connectivity to countries between Portugal and South Africa on the West coast of Africa. Main One will interconnect countries on the Atlantic Coast from South Africa in the South to Morocco in the North with each other and through Portugal to the rest of the world.

Specifically, the cable system will originate in Seixal, Portugal where it will interconnect with other cable systems to London, New York and key cities in Asia. The cable system will also directly connect landing stations in Accra and Lagos in Phase 1, with optional landings in Casablanca, Morocco; Tenerife, Canary Islands: Dakar, Senegal; Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, and in Phase 2 will add on landings in Bonny Nigeria; Libreville, Gabon; Pointe Noire, Congo; Luanda, Angola; and Cape Town, South Africa, subject to the securing of licenses in these additional destinations.

Once commissioned in 2010, Main One will provide the much-needed bandwidth on the continent. The Main One cable system will have a design capacity of 1.92 Tbps; representing over 10 times the current capacity available on the West Coast. As an open access cable, Main One will leverage this capacity to reduce international bandwidth prices, and stimulate the growth of bandwidth intensive services such as IPTV, HDTV being easily provided within the region.

Our goal is to develop Main One to be the most reliable, scalable and professionally managed international telecommunications service provider on the African continent..

Main One is a private sector-led initiative by Africans for the betterment of Africans and the rest of the world wishing to connect to Africa. Main One was developed initially by private investors out of Nigeria and Ghana and is wholly owned by African investors. The institution has been supported with debt by development finance institutions from within the African continent and beyond.