Namibia has, for the first time, been connected to the global submarine communications cable. The West Africa Cable System (WACS) links South Africa with the United Kingdom. MTN Business, a subsidiary of the MTN Group, which is a major investor in WACS, looks forward to the completion of the cable and the resultant acceleration of affordable broadband capacity.
Says Manfred Engling, General Manager of MTN Business Namibia; “The acceleration of affordable broadband capacity and the convergence of information and communication technologies is starting to take root in the Namibian business arena and is rapidly signalling new ways of conducting business. With this historic landing, the playing field has been levelled with the rest of the world, and we hope to see some of the future ‘next big’ applications come out the local Namibian ICT community.”
The landing of WACS in Namibia is a massive milestone towards broadband cost cutting becoming a reality and a key enabler to critical telecoms industry development.
Says Engling; “While it may seem obvious that corporate Namibia wants affordable, reliable services that provide a competitive edge, the only way this will become a reality is when the associated cost savings of bandwidth usage are redistributed into enabling organisations to take advantage of emerging trends such as Software-as-a-Service, Cloud Computing and Virtualisation – and the time is now.”
Following a long design, build and laying process and supplier-owner collaborative tests, MTN Business is confident that as they begin to migrate customers over to the cable later in 2011, they will be able to provide a truly reliable, redundant service, one that is hosted and managed by MTN and not outsourced or co-managed through any alternate service provider.
Says Johnny Aucamp, General Manager: Strategic Relations and Business Development Africa at MTN Business; “MTN Business has invested over $130 million in alternative undersea cables as part of its vision to ensure that by 2011 operations across the African continent and Middle East escape the stranglehold of procuring unreliable and often expensive international bandwidth.”
Not only is the commoditisation of access inevitable, but the growing demand for convergence, network services and cloud computing means local businesses will require more and more bandwidth. Not to mention businesses growth strategies for across the continent. “This will require ISPs to focus their attention on the broader business offering which will fundamentally require a different way of thinking – one that takes into account the continuous changes and demands that are set for this market,” concludes Aucamp.
The WACS cable also connects Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde as well as the Canary Islands and Portugal. The DRC, the Republic of Congo and Togo join Namibia in the list of countries celebrating their first connection.
By Angela Meadon
