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Main One Cable is not necessarily a subsea company in the same vein as larger energy and telecom companies, but it was the first African-owned submarine cable company to complete such a dynamic project. Ms. Opeke made a point of encouraging angel investors from Africa to take a chance on her idea long before she had a license to make it happen, and once her project got under way she solicited further investment from African investors willing to put money into their own continent. The result has been a company owned entirely by African investors, all helping to improve Africa's infrastructure and economy.

When the Main One fibre optic cable was fully up and running, new plans were started to extend it further down the coast and connect it to another cable installed by Seacom in 2009. When that connection is finally made it will link both the east and west coasts of Africa. More importantly, it will hasten the development of broadband infrastructure further inland. Doing so is crucial to developing the African broadband market which currently has a penetration of only about 10%.

In the global economy broadband Internet access is becoming more crucial to developing countries so they don't fall further behind. Africa is a special challenge because business owners are reluctant to go online. With budgets that limit growth and expansion it is difficult to encourage African companies to take the broadband plunge. Hopefully that changes with the anew network and the announcement last fall that Google will be offering free websites to African businesses.

The Internet's most used search engine has been teaming up with various service providers since last spring to get Africa's businesses online. They are offering free websites, technical support, and webmaster tools designed to develop Internet use even among Africa's large number of totally inexperienced users. If all goes well they hope to see market penetration rise to at least 40% over the next couple of years.

Thanks to an entrepreneurial dream and a subsea company, the African continent is well on its way to joining the digital age. Welcome aboard!