Self Inflicted African Telecom Wounds

I learned this morning that several countries including Guinea declined 2Africa membership because they rejected the open cable model. Despite a 2Africa branching unit just outside Guinea territorial waters. In other words, the Guinea government wanted to control the cable landing station. The current regime practices soft censorship by threatening journalists and media outlets that criticize the government and imposing high fines for slander against the State.  Apparently it views widespread Internet access as a threat to its existence. This is reflected in only 765 fixed broadband connections in a country of 14 million. My guess is that this explains why other African states also declined to connect to 2Africa. 

Who are the other holdouts? This is sheer speculation on my part, but I find it strange that Cameroon did not participate in either Equiano or 2Africa. Its PTT may have feared increased competition in its home market due to the open cable landing model which would have ensured every telecom player and ISP had access to affordable wavelengths. Camtel has deployed the SAIL cable that connects Cameroon to Brazil. So it has its own subsea cable aspirations. Interestingly enough, Cameroon is also authoritarian like Guinea with tight control over the broadcast media. 

More recently I learned that the Cameron government expropriated the WACS CLS without compensation and that 2Africa telcos fear for their property as a result. Several 2Africa consortium members refused to provide funds for a Cameroon CLS because they did not trust the government. 


Map of Fibre Optic Subsea Cable Known as 2Africa


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