Why isn't there an African internet backbone?

[Kanda]

Isn't the question "why isn't there a BT African internet backbone", anyway?

Think about what is required for a backbone.

Think about the best way around that (Satellite etc).

Think about costs involved in installing/maintaining a copper/fiber/whatever backbone.

Think about the fact that one of our traders lives on Dartmoor and the ONLY way he can get reasonable access speeds is via satellite.

 

[keybored]

.

 

[Wintermute]

i was being flippant!

I know I was being geeky.

Talking of which, though:

I wonder which area deals with the most traffic. Got to be either New York or London (including Docklands)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_Exchange_Points_by_size
http://www.pch.net/ixpdir/?show_active_only=0&sort=traffic&order=desc

It's Amsterdam. By a fairly big margin. Funny, that....

 

[Xanadu]

According to the first, London's average throughput is far higher.

 

[mauvais]

Think about what is required for a backbone.

Think about the best way around that (Satellite etc).

Think about costs involved in installing/maintaining a copper/fiber/whatever backbone.

Think about the fact that one of our traders lives on Dartmoor and the ONLY way he can get reasonable access speeds is via satellite.

I don't know what you mean.

My point is that the OP only references BT maps. It seems, though I'm not sure, that for instance South Africa is connected to the rest of the world by a set of backbones. Found a PDF link somewhere.

This was part of what I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT-3/WASC_(cable_system)

 

[Poi E]

Well, AfriNIC is s start. Africa's first regional internet registry (for assigning IP addresses)

I attend the ICANN conferences regularly and there are a lot of African people coming through, including a domain name registrar in Senegal.

As for a backbone...not enough traffic innit. Mobile rules, infrastructure gets pinched or not maintained. Let's hope 3G or whatever replaces it gives good cheap speed on mobiles.

 

[jayeola]

Right,

Happened to read this http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9621946 in the morning and helped to explain things a bit. Last night I read a few papers from peeps in WA explaining why satalite is so predominant.

 

[Poi E]

Very interesting. Looks like the consortium delivering the cable do not like ideas like sovereignty. Nor do they appreciate that there is not one model of telecommunications Africa, just as the article points out. Why should countries be driven to offer one price and allow all manner of competition? If wiki can be trusted, we see that the World Bank is behind this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EASSy

Notice that Telkom, South Africa's incumbent telco, is a significant partner behind the cable. South Africa sold out to World Bank dictates years ago. This is more than just a cable. This is about using infrastructure and World Bank dogma to dictate terms to the concerned African nations. It's not the structural adjustment stick, but rather the carrot of internet connectivity.

 

[jayeola]

hrm, so this /is/ about politics?

 

[Kanda]

hrm, so this /is/ about politics?

lol.. no!

 

[rich!]

interesting. you'd think 491 scams alone would justify it.

419, dear.

Hence the rather wonderful 419 Squad, who stormed Womad a couple of years ago.

 

[Poi E]

Of course it's about politics...