Notes On The African Subsea Telecom Market
1. Capacity shortages will develop within 2 years because Equiano and 2Africa are insufficient given the vast number of countries they serve. Only South Africa and Nigeria have adequate capacity. But for many countries 2Africa is the only truly modern and reliable system with good long haul pricing and reasonable cross connect fees. Now 2Africa is 180 Tbps, but serves at least 30 countries in total. Even if we exclude the Pearls component, we are looking at Egypt, Italy, France, Portugal, UK, Sudan, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, South Africa, Angola, the two Congos, Gabon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Togo, and Senegal. I count 27 in the core African network. Divide by 180/27=6.7 Tbps. Capacity shortages are almost guaranteed particularly given some migration from the older, less reliable systems with their high cross connect charges to 2Africa and Equiano. One factor that may alleviate stress on the telecom...