In Africa, the use of fiber optic cables is common, although there are significant regional differences. This is the result of significant investments made by both public and private institutions over the past decade, said Jess Auerbach Jahazia, Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town’s School of Management, in an interview with The Conversation. explained.
“Fundamentally, all of the public’s internet relies on fiber optic cables. Landlocked countries also rely on networks at landing stations (where cables come out from underground and connect to above-ground systems). This is because we have agreements with countries that have highly secure buildings (close to the sea). she said.
He also pointed out that some regions are less affected by cable damage than others because of their geographic location.
“Based on the interactive map of fiber optic cables, it is clear that South Africa is in a relatively good position. When the outage occurred, the network was affected for several hours before internet traffic was rerouted.” Jess Auerbach said:
“However, in some countries in Africa, including Sierra Leone and Liberia, most cables do not have spurs (equivalent to road exit ramps), so only one fiber optic cable enters the country. , Internet traffic from these countries will be stopped.” she added.
This raises the question of which African countries are hardest hit by internet outages. According to Citinews Africa, there are four categories of severity of internet failure: severe, high, moderate and low.
Countries affected by cable damage fall into these categories. Below is a list of these countries and their poor internet connectivity.
