Blog

The total design capacity on the 13 submarine cables landing in Sub-Saharan Africa will reach 13.959 Tbps at the end of 2010. This will be a 77% increase compared to 7.881 Tbps on the 10 cables operational at the end of 2009, and 4.151 Tbps on the 7 cables operational at the end of 2008. By the end of 2011, the total design capacity will increase from 13.959 Tbps to reach 19.079 Tbps, and by the end of 2012 will reach 25.799 Tbps. These capacity increases have been brought by the introduction of new submarine cable systems, and also by the upgrading of capacity on systems which are either operational or under construction (see below). In particular, the implementation of Alcatel Lucent’s 40G technology on the EASSy, WACS and ACE cables in recent months has increased the design capacity on these three cables from 7.160 Tbps to 14.080 Tbps. Notes: (1) On the basis of design capacity announced at the time that Construction and Maintenance Agreements (C&MA) had been signed and supply... Read More →

2010 Africa Telecom Transmission Map and Datasets Published by Hamilton Research 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. The second edition of the Africa Telecom Transmission Map now available from Hamilton Research has been comprehensively updated to show Africa's terrestrial and submarine cable transmission networks as at June 2010. The map contains data for 113 telecom operators in 52 African countries. These transmission networks underpin the delivery of broadband data and Internet services. Africa’s total inventory of terrestrial transmission network increased by 26% in the last year to reach 585,471-kms at the end of June 2010 (465,659-km in 2009, restated to include... Read More →