Africa and the continental shift in global internet access

In 1994, there were more telephone lines in New York City than there were in the entire continent of Africa. Over the next two decades, digital transformation in Africa dramatically picked up speed.

Today, the continent is teeming with pioneers building ‘digital bridges’ within and between villages, countries and continents, as well as connecting Africa to the global economy and research communities.

Inasmuch as this may be true, many parts of Africa continue to play catch-up with the rest of the world in terms of the control and directness of subsea fibre optic connectivity.

This challenge appears to be a colonial artefact of the global growth of the internet as the continent has arguably faced more geographic, political and economic barriers to its development than other regions.

Fortunately, this is about to change; representing a symbolic ‘Africa first’ shift for the continent in terms of its self-determination and autonomy in the telecommunications arena. For countries in sub-Saharan Africa, it presents a massive opportunity to leapfrog other countries. For regions outside the continent, it will also offer a more efficient, alternative route for burgeoning internet traffic across the world’s largest continent.

Currently, the West Africa Cable System (WACS) is the most important conduit for data for the West Coast of the continent.

Managed by a 12-member consortium, it provides carrier-level services to operators in sub-Saharan Africa across a dozen countries, including 12 landing points in Africa and three in Europe (The Canary Islands, Portugal and England). Running more than 14,000 km, starting in Yzerfontein (South Africa) to London (UK), WACS is an essential artery for the digital connectivity and economic development of countries connecting to the cable.

But in order for internet traffic to travel between Africa and the Americas (the largest centre for the production and aggregation of digital content and services), it must first go through Europe, a rather inefficient route, and one might even say unnecessary if needing to cross the Atlantic ocean.

With the South Atlantic Cable System (SACS), expected to be completed in 2018, the first direct link betweenAfrica and South America will be created. A subsea cable extending more than 6,500 km between Brazil and Angola, SACS will be 100 per cent owned and managed by an African company, Angola Cables. Combined with Monet, a cable system to be completed this year and operated by Angola Cables, Algar Telecom, ANTEL and Google, SACS represents a paradigm shift for Africa and the Americas in terms of connectivity and collaboration.

Currently, the latency, or the time lag between a data packet being sent and received, on subsea fibre optic cables systems between Angola and Brazil is 350 milliseconds, due to the trafficking of internet via Europe. With SACS, this will be reduced fivefold to approximately 63 milliseconds. In effect, this will create a ‘continental shift’ in terms of internet access to and from Africa, bypassing Europe. Once operational, an African company will be fully responsible for the digital exchange between Africas and the Americas.

Together with growing terrestrial fibre optic systems, mobile technologies and satellite services, such a direct connection between will also improve other countries’ (in the Middle East and Asia, for example), access more parts of the world, either as sources of content or investment destinations for Africa-based data and communications services. Hubs for telecommunications innovation have blossomed on the continent, and with the completion of SACS and Monet, further expansion of data centres and internet Exchanges Points (IXPs) in Africa is expected.