An undersea fibre-optic cable laid along the West African coast came ashore in Namibia on Tuesday, allowing high bandwidth connectivity for the country and its neighbours, officials said.
“The 14 900 kilometre West African Cable System (Wacs) will bring direct connectivity between Namibia, West Africa and the UK,” Frans Ndoroma, MD of Telecom Namibia, said at the connection ceremony.
The cable which landed on the beach at Swakopmund, some 370km west of capital Windhoek, was developed by Telecom Namibia and French partner Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks for US$600m dollars.
“The cable will provide an Internet speed of at least 5,1Tbit/s,” Ndoroma added.
Other landing points are in several African countries and in Britain, Portugal and Spain’s Canary Islands.
The arrival of the cable, which will also be extended to Botswana, is expected to bring down prices for Internet users and broadband connectivity.
“The investors would want some return on their investments, so I expect prices to fall only later, not immediately,” said Marc Gregan, the manager of Internet service provider AfricaOnline Namibia. — Sapa-AFP
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