Equinix's MainOne acquires Equiano capacityEquinix's MainOne acquires Equiano capacity

MainOne, the West African connectivity and data center solutions provider that is part of Equinix, has acquired an extra tier of service for its customers through the Equiano submarine cable.

The company said the move provides additional resiliency for its enterprise customers, ensuring uninterrupted service at no additional cost.

MainOne said recognizing the challenges its customers face in ensuring business continuity amidst network disruptions – such as the submarine cable faults that happened last year – it has taken proactive steps to fortify its network.

It added that by incorporating capacity on the Equiano submarine cable into its network, its customers will receive an additional level of redundancy to always ensure more reliable connectivity.

Oluwasayo Oshadami, director of solutions architects at MainOne Solutions by Equinix, said the company understands the technical complexities and costs associated with building and managing redundant network infrastructure.

"Our customers can remain focused on the core of their business operations, not on the intricacies of managing multiple networks, fail-overs or resilience. With the integration of Equiano, we are simplifying and eliminating the stress of managing multiple cable connections for our end users. Hence, we give them the peace of mind they deserve," Oshadami continued.

Related:Equinix to invest $390M in African expansion

MainOne's African business

MainOne has been working towards extending services to its customers for a while now.

In November 2023, it launched an expanded open-access, carrier-neutral data center in Côte d'Ivoire.

MainOne was acquired by Nasdaq-listed Equinix in April 2022 for $320 million.

The MainOne deal, announced in December 2021, aimed to expand Platform Equinix into West Africa, providing organizations both within and outside of Africa with access to global and regional markets.

MainOne was acquired by Nasdaq-listed Equinix in April 2022 for $320 million. (Source: Image by DCStudio on Freepik)

That acquisition added three operational data centers to Equinix's portfolio in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.

In December 2022, Equinix announced a US$160 million data center investment in South Africa, saying that the facility would connect businesses in South Africa and beyond to Equinix's global network of customers and partners.

That investment led to the company opening the first phase of its 20-megawatt data center, called JN1, in Germiston, South Africa in October 2024.

Equiano boosts resiliency

MainOne's decision to provide an extra tier of service via the Equiano submarine cable comes at a time when other companies are working towards boosting network resiliency for their customers.

Telecom Namibia signed an agreement with Telecom Italia's international infrastructure unit, Sparkle, to provide capacity on the Equiano subsea cable in June 2024.

That announcement came during a period when subsea cables have been experiencing breakages, leading to a slow-down of Internet connections and sometimes even connection outages.

Four cables were damaged when a suspected subsea seismic event occurred off the coast of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire on the west coast of Africa, impacting Africa's Internet services in March 2024.

In May 2024, both the East African Submarine Cable System (Eassy) and Seacom cable systems along Africa's east coast went down, but were subsequently repaired.

Equiano's journey began in Lisbon, Portugal in 2019 with several stops along the western coast of Africa, and landings in Melkbosstrand, South Africa and Swakopmund in Namibia.