Africa: Building fair entry to cyberspace

Africa currently has to pay for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world. The region currently only has one major international fibre cable (SAT3) that connects countries in West and Southern Africa but East Africa has no fibre connection. All this will change if the proposed East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) cable is built as it will connect countries on the eastern side of the continent and if this new capacity is offered in a way that maximises use and lowers price. To help make this possible, APC is launching a new website “Fibre-for-Africa” and on March 10 will hold a consultation with more than 80 key stakeholders from all over Eastern and Southern Africa to ensure that access to EASSy -which will serve eight coastal and eleven land-locked countries- is ‘easy’, affordable and open.