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The Challenges in Getting Internet Access to All South Africans

South Africa is on a drive to connect its citizens to the Internet. In November 2021, the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni announced that the government was considering a programme to bring internet access to all South Africans within the next 24 months. Attempting to bridge the country’s digital divide, the programme would not only enable access to online services but also provide opportunities for a digitally-driven economy. The proposed programme indicates South Africa’s determination to embrace digital transformation. Never before has Internet connectivity been so paramount to the expansion and development of economic activity, especially in the age of wide-reaching digital services. But what does broad Internet access look like locally, and what...

Massive Undersea Mudslide Caused Internet Problems Across Africa

Image sourced from Medium. A recent study conducted by Professor Peter J. Talling and a team from the Departments of Earth Sciences and Geography, from the University of Durham in the UK, co-led by Angola Cables and supported by the Vodafone Group, British Telecom, NERC Environmental and others, has delivered important findings presenting valuable insights for the routing and protection of future subsea cables. In January 2020, the South Atlantic 3/West Africa (SAT-3/Wasc) cable, linking Africa to Portugal and Spain was hit by a breakdown in Gabon, whilst the West Africa Cable System (Wacs) that connects South Africa to the United Kingdom saw an outage off the coast of the DRC Congo. In March, the WACS cable experienced a further break affecting international bandwidth.  Whilst many I...