Main One, a broadband infrastructure company working across West Africa, has been asked by Burkina Faso, backed by the World Bank, to provide bulk connectivity services to a consortium of operators for the next three years.
The consortium aims to deliver a turnkey project that will provide fibre optic transmission infrastructure between the capital Ouagadougou and Dakola. This is to be delivered in two phases within a three-year period.
A World Bank contribution of $20 million, plus support from the government’s PRICAO (Projet Régional d’Infrastructures de Communication de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) initiative, has enabled the setting-up of a 200km fibre optic transmission link from Ouagadougou to Dakola.
The first phase of the project started in 2018; the initial stage will provide capacity in Ouagadougou over three years. Phase 2 of the project will begin in the second quarter of 2020 and will lead to the provision of additional internet capacity in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso within another three-year period.
MainOne has been selected to deliver Phase 2 and says it will provide 10 Gbps broadband capacity in Ouagadougou, together with 5Gbps in Bobo Dioulasso. MainOne currently delivers an additional capacity of 2.5Gbps to Ouagadougou to strengthen and secure the capacity initially delivered in Phase I of the project.
MainOne says it has been able to provide its services in Burkina through terrestrial optical fibres connecting its landing point in Accra to the Burkinabe border town of Paga, where the organization has established a physical point of presence specifically to address the needs of the Burkina Faso market.