Main One's 7,000-kilometer submarine cable system, switched on in July last year, links West Africa to Europe.

With the deployment of Cisco's IP NGN, Main One wants to address the anticipated growth in Internet traffic and demand for Internet-based video services from IPTV to TelePresence, Cisco said in a statement.

Main One will also develop an IP-based network and application service offerings for private and public communications networks in West Africa. The company says it will offer IP-based services such as virtual private networks (VPN), Voice over IP (VoIP), IPTV and advanced collaboration technologies.