London — The first generation of African submarine cable building is over and with the announcement of Google and Facebook cables, the second generation of cable building begins. Russell Southwood asks what these two digital giants are up to in Africa and how it will affect other newer cables, both existing and planned.
A global sea change has happened in cable building. Telcos and MNOs are no longer the dominant customers or indeed the instigators of new cable projects. The OTT companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon have taken over. According to TeleGeography, the international capacity deployed by these companies rose 14-fold between 2012 to 2016 and continues to grow. Some examples will illustrate the point:
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