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Africa's International Bandwidth Approaches 1 Tbps Mark

Africa’s international Internet bandwidth will reach the 1 Tbps mark during 2012. By December 2011, Africa’s total international Internet bandwidth reached 801 Gbps, a 60% increase compared to 2010. This was split between North Africa which increased by 45% to reach 433 Gbps, and Sub-Saharan Africa which increased by 82% to reach 368 Gbps.

Africa’s inventory of terrestrial transmission network reached 702,294.9 route kilometres in the first quarter of 2012. A total of 1,127 changes were made to terrestrial networks in the Africa Transmission Map during the first quarter of 2012, with fibre backbones extended for Read More →

Africa's Fibre Roll-Out: 138 Route-Kms of New Fibre Network Enters Service Per Day

Africa’s total inventory of terrestrial transmission networks increased by 15% over the last year to reach 676,739 route-kms by the end of September 2011, according to the third edition of the Africa Telecom Transmission Map.

In the last twelve months, on average 138 route-kms of new fibre network entered service per day Read More →

Terrestrial Network Rollout Increases Africa's Fibre Reach By 54 Million

In the twelve months since July 2010, an additional 45,498-km of terrestrial fibre optic network has entered service across Africa, according to the latest additions to the Africa Telecom Transmission Map.

This roll out of terrestrial networks has brought an additional 53.885 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa within reach of an operational fibre node, more than the population of South Africa Read More →

Africa's International Bandwidth Reaches 500 Gbps Mark

Africa’s total international Internet bandwidth reached 520 Gbps in December 2010, a 78% increase compared to 2009. This was split between North Africa, which increased by 56% to reach 312 Gbps, and Sub-Saharan Africa which increased by 125% to reach 208 Gbps.

In the first quarter of 2011, a total of 45,338.7-kms of network was added or edited in the Africa Telecom Transmission Map, bringing the total inventory of terrestrial transmission network to 645,938.2-km. By comparison, in July 2010 Read More →

Submarine Cables Reach 4.4% of Africa's Population, Terrestrial Fibre Networks Reach 31%

Submarine cables landing in sub-Saharan Africa currently reach 37.4 million people within a 25-km range of landing stations, equivalent to 4.4% of the total population. This will increase to 46.6 million (5.5%) once additional landing points for the WACS, ACE, and SEAS submarine cables have been completed in 2011 and 2012.

The thirteen submarine cable systems with landings in sub-Saharan Africa have a total design capacity of 14.0 Tbps, which will now almost double to 25.8 Tbps by the end of 2012, but the key is delivering this capacity to customers. Read More →

57,560-km of New Terrestrial Transmission Network Enters Service Across Africa

Africa’s build-out of telecom transmission networks has stepped up another gear. In the 12 months to June 2010, Africa’s fixed line and alternative operators brought a further 57,560-km of terrestrial fibre and microwave transmission network into service. Laid end-to-end, that is enough new operational network to wrap around the earth 1.5 times. Read More →

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Please feel free to include this map image in your presentations and reports, so long as it is not altered in any way and clearly includes the citation "Source: © Hamilton Research 2011, www.africabandwidthmaps.com".

The 2011 Africa Telecom Transmission Map is sponsored by Gateway Communications.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the dozens of network operators for providing information, and the following organisations for their input and advice into the research and production of this map: Africa Analysis, Balancing Act, ECCAS, ECOWAS, Europa Technologies, and the World Bank.