Phase3 Telecom,French Firm in Network Expansion Pact

Phase3 Telecom has signed a contract with INEO Energie DU Export of France to expand its communications network coverage from Benin Republic to Togo. The development, the company said, was in fulfillment of its plan towards further development of its West Africa One transmission network to cover all countries in the sub-region.

The West Africa One network is an aerial optic fibre transmission system which will run from Nigeria to different countries in West Africa providing physical telecommunications infrastructure link among countries in the region.

The Network has been heavily supported by the West Africa Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, (WATRA), which says that it was a massive boost towards its programme of providing affordable and reliable telecommunications link in the West Africa sub-region.

At the signing ceremony that took place last week in Paris, France, Chief Executive Officer, Phase3 Telecom, Mr. Stanley Jegede signed for his firm, while Managing Director INEO Energie DU Export, Mr. Gaetan Texier, signed on behalf of his company. 
Jegede said the decision to award the contract to INEO Energue Du Export was based on the track record of the firm in the area of optic fibre installation.

“INEO Energie is the global leader when it comes to installation of power line infrastructure. We went through a very tedious process before We eventually settling for them. We are quite happy to have chosen them to help fulfil our efforts of providing the West Africa region with a robust telecommunications infrastructure that is second to none.”

Jegede added that the firm would continue to provide very high quality optic fibre connection running on electricity power transmission lines and will offer subscribers the latest technologies in the industry.

He said, “We have already showed the benefits of aerial optic fibre in Nigeria and its effectiveness in helping to ensure high quality communications services to customers. This is the sort of experience that we want to take across all of West Africa.”

Jegede, whose firm runs the region’s only aerial optic fiber network, added that given that Nigeria and indeed the West African region was still a developing, road construction and building of other infrastructure would be very frequent, leading to underground cables often being cut. This situation, according to him, highlights the need for a network that will not easily be affected by such developments, adding that this is where the Phase3 aerial optic fiber network comes in especially as electricity power transmission networks often have dedicated routes by law. He said that with this situation, many operators had seen the need to embrace aerial optic fiber use, as it provides a huge relief for them whenever the underground optic fibers fail.

He said, “In Nigeria today all the operators including those that have their own transmission networks have embraced Phase3’s aerial optic services especially after they have seen the advantages that it offers them. We believe that even for those that may already have excess capacity, aerial optic fibre provides a very reliable backup and alternative.

“This is also in addition to the fact that there are certain areas of coverage of the Phase3 aerial optic fibre system which other terrestrial network are not designed to reach currently due to the countries road and highway network”.

Besides, Jegede noted that most optic fiber cables follow the same predictable route, meaning that they are all likely to be affected at the same time in the event of anything catastrophic happening; such as fire, road construction and vandalism. This, he added, clearly defines an obvious need for a reliable alternative to the underground fiber that is used by operators.

He noted further that besides providing the best quality, aerial optic fiber provides many advantages over underground cables in the transmission business. Among them, he said, is the ease and speed of deployment, stating that aerial optic fiber is one backhaul means that can be quickly expanded to un served and underserved locations unlike underground optic fiber.