Sky-high thinking for African internet
How do you solve a problem like broadband in Africa?
Some believe it’s by looking up to the heavens.
Not in hope of divine intervention, but as an opportunity: satellite-powered broadband could be the answer to Africa’s connectivity conundrum.
The internet is, as one US senator once put it, a series of tubes.
His comments went down in internet folklore and were roundly mocked - but his remarks were loosely true. For the internet to get around the world it needs cables - lots of them.
They cost millions, span entire oceans and meander across deserts. Many are laid through some of the world’s most volatile areas, such as Syria.
So when it comes to connecting Africa to the high-speed information super-highway, the enormity of the task cannot be over-exaggerated.
Under the sea
In the past few years, the continent has benefited from major investment into its internet economy.
Since 2009, three high-speed internet cables have been laid across the ocean, reaching out from Europe and Asia, and bringing huge speed increases - not to mention lower costs - to east Africa.
Kenya has arguably made the most of this connectivity. In just 12 months after the installation of the high-speed cables, the number of Kenyans on broadband rocketed from 1.8 million to more than 3 million.
