Ten years ago, MainOne launched its operations with the commissioning of the first private submarine cable on the West Coast of Africa.
Since inception, MainOne has invested over $400m in infrastructure in West Africa as part of its efforts to bridge the digital divide and enable the digital economy.
Today, MainOne is recognized as West Africa’s leading provider of Wholesale and Enterprise connectivity and data center services.
The company led by Ms Funke Opeke as the chief executive officer, has played a critical role in enabling internet access across West Africa where penetration rates have grown from less than 10% in 2010 to close to 40% ten years later.
In celebration of her 10th anniversary of delivering innovative, world-class service in West Africa, TechEconomy.ng presents ten (10) milestones of MainOne:
1. Launch of First Private Submarine Cable
2010 saw the official launch of MainOne, a 7000km submarine cable which runs from Seixal, Portugal through Accra, Ghana to Lagos, Nigeria with branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal, and Ivory Coast.
MainOne became the first, African-owned company to lay International communications cable delivering open-access, broadband capacity in West Africa.
2. Launch of Metro Ethernet and Voice Services in Lagos and Accra
In 2012, MainOne secured ISP and Metro Fiber Licenses in Nigeria, deployed ASN 37282 IP/NGN network.
MainOne continued to grow metro fiber in Lagos, Accra and launched Metro Ethernet Services and Voice Services while deploying new Points of Presence (PoPs) in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Accra.
3. Birth of West Africa’s first Tier III Data Center, MDXi
2015 saw the launch of the first, state of the art, Tier III Data Center in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria.
This 600-rack space facility, touted by experts as the biggest, custom-built Tier III Data Center in West Africa, addressed the growing demand for in-country hosting facility. MDXi went on to achieve PCI DSS, ISO27001 and 9001 certifications and earned a Frost and Sullivan award for “Advanced Data Center Infrastructure in West Africa” the same year.
4. Launch of Cloud Services
In 2015, MainOne ventured into providing Cloud services to its enterprise customers, helping them reduce business overheads by eliminating hardware costs.
The flagship cloud offering, the MDXI Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) solution, is fully hosted on enterprise-grade hardware within its tier III data centre in Lagos.
MainOne reseller programme was launched during a training programme in partnership with Edo State Government
MainOne has since grown to become preferred regional partner with the leading technology giants as Microsoft and AWS and in 2019 we won:
- Winner of the Africa Cloud Service Provider of the year, DataCloud Africa Awards, 2019
- Winner of the Excellence in Data Center Award: Africa, DataCloud Africa Awards, 2019
5. Cable extension to Cameroun
MainOne extended its submarine cable to Cameroun in 2015 with branching ports in Escravos, Delta State, Qua Iboe in Akwa Ibom State and Bonny Island in Rivers State.
This 1,100 km Nigerian Cameroun Cable System was built in partnership with Cameroun Telecommunications (CAMTEL) and delivered an additional 12.8Tbps capacity to Cameroun.
6. SME-IN-A-BOX product offerings
In 2016, MainOne launched a tailored solution for small businesses to achieve their digital transformation objectives.
This included a bundled solution of fibre connectivity, voice, cloud and productivity tools at very cost-effective packages to drive SMEs growth and productivity.
7. Compliance & Certifications
To ensure we exceed our customers’ requirements in line with international standards, MainOne is licensed and certified by various standards organizations including Tier III Constructed Facility certification (TCCF) from the Uptime Institute, ISO27001, ISO9001, PCI-DSS, SAP certifications.
8. Launch of WAF-IX
MainOne partnered with global IXP Platform provider, Asteroid, to launch a carrier- neutral, Internet Exchange Point for West Africa (WAF-IX) to improve accessibility, lower costs and reduced latency for Internet users in West Africa.
9. Strategic Partnerships
In 2019 MainOne had strategic partnership with major global companies such as Facebook on open access fiber network in Nigeria with metro fiber build in Edo and Ogun States of Nigeria; Avanti Communications to deliver satellite services to enterprises in remote locations in Nigeria; and Zenlayer to expand connectivity between international companies and West Africa
10. Hello Cote D’Ivoire and Senegal!
2019 also witnessed the historical landing of MainOne Cable in Grand-Bassam, Cote D’Ivoire and Dakar; the construction of another Tier III Data Center as well as the official launch of service in Cote D’Ivoire.
Reflecting on 10 years in business, the Chief Executive Officer of MainOne, Ms. Funke Opeke, said:
“We started on this journey to deploy critical infrastructure to bridge the digital divide in West Africa. While we are pleased that we have made an impact, there is so much more work to be done. The recent challenges we have faced with COVID-19 Pandemic highlight the need for additional investment and smarter policies to deploy shared infrastructure required to make access to broadband a reality for more Africans at a price they can afford. MainOne has been leading that charge across West Africa for ten years and we are even more committed to realizing our vision today than we were 10 years ago”.
Happy 10th Anniversary to MainOne!
Author
