ESTISALAT Nigeria Limited has ruled out construction of a fibre optic cable in the near future but will rather buy capacity from other operators.
Chief Executive Officer for Estisalat, Steven Evans, said that efforts would be made to secure supplies by patronising two cable operators at the same time, with both suppliers serving as back up to each other.
”We have already bought capacity from Main One and there are other cables coming into Nigeria with more capacity, so we are not going to build a cable of our own, we don‘t see that as necessary,” he said
“There are specialist companies, which build subsea cables and they have enormous capacity on those cables. So, we will take a certain capacity from at least two cable providers in order to make sure that we have the security of supplies from two suppliers,” he added.
Fitch Ratings recently rated Etisalat long-term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating at ‘A+‘with a stable outlook.
The rating, according to experts, reflects that the company‘s international mobile operations in India, Egypt and Nigeria will provide its major source of growth.
Fiber optic cable investments is now the rave in Nigeria as operators and analysts strongly believe it will enhance broadband penetration in the country.
Globacom, Main One Cable Company and MTN Nigeria (co-owner of the West African Submarine Cable) have taken the lead by investing in submarine cables.
