The use of fiber optic cables has become widespread in Africa, but there are significant differences in access across regions.
This is due to major investments from both public and private organizations over the last decade, as explained by Jess Auerbach Jahajeeah, an associate professor at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, during an interview with The Conversation.
Explanation
“Basically, all regular internet connections in Africa rely on fiber optic cables. Even landlocked countries depend on this network because they have agreements with coastal countries where the cables come up from underground and connect to terrestrial systems.”
She also noted that some regions are less affected by cable damage due to their geographic location.
“Looking at an interactive map of fiber optic cables, South Africa is relatively well-positioned. When there are cable breaks, the network is affected for a few hours before internet traffic is redirected,” Auerbach stated.
However, in several African countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia, most cables do not have “spurs” (similar to off-ramps on a road), so only one fiber optic cable serves the country. When this cable breaks, internet traffic in these countries stops.
This raises the question of which African countries are most affected by internet outages. According to Citinews Africa, they categorize the severity of internet outages into four levels: severe, high, medium, and low.
Below is a list of countries affected by damaged cables and how severe their internet connectivity is:
Severe
- Ivory Coast
High
- Liberia
- Benin
- Ghana
- Burkina Faso
Medium
- Togo
- Cameroon
- Gabon
- Namibia
- Niger
Low
- Nigeria
- Lesotho
- South Africa
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