Main Street Technologies in the news

Source: The Daily Punch. 18/09/2007

A Nigerian firm, Mainstreet Technologies, plans to build an undersea optic fibre cable to compete with SAT-3.
SAT-3 is a transatlantic transmission system sponsored by telecoms incumbents, led by Telkom South Africa.

Our correspondent gathered on Monday that the project would cost $300m. The firm has plans to complete it ahead of others currently under construction. This will make it the first alternative source of underwater transmission to SAT-3.

Mainstreet has Ms. Funke Opeke as its Chief Executive Officer. She was until recently, the chief operating officer of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited. Known as MainOne, the cable seeks to connect to twelve countries, including Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Ghana, Cote d' Voire, Nigeria (Lagos, Port Harcourt), Gabon, the DRC and Angola.

The firm said there was option to extend the cable to South Africa if there was a change of the attitude to external operators by the government of the country.

"We've been a little disappointed with the South African government's attitude", Opeke was quoted to have said on the website of a technology research firm, Balancing Act.

Opeke noted that her two year stint in NITEL had given her insight into how painful the infrastructure limitations were, adding that she set out to build a new competitor cable to SAT-3 in May 2007. She said the project already has some strong financial backers and that its ownership would be local.

The good news is that there is a lot of interest and a new capacity in Africa in general particularly in Nigeria to fund projects of this magnitude. There's currently more interest than needed for our requirements. The project will be African-led" she said.

The business model is that Mainstreet Technologies will pay for the lending stations and the cable and shareholding will be open to all comers.

According to the firm, early equity investors will have some price advantage but will not be significant over the life of the cable.

The cable will have a capacity of 2.56 terabits and Opeke anticipates that prices will be 10 percent of current prices and will still be profitable.

Opeke said, "We're already talking to some of the larger operators. The company to run the project will be set up in a couple of month's time and will have the cable in place by 2009"

Source: The Daily Punch. 18-09-2007