In a recent article featured on Developing Telecoms titled, titled: Laying the groundwork: how Africa handled its subsea cable crisis, Africa’s response to recent subsea cable disruptions was examined, showcasing the continent’s evolving Internet infrastructure resilience.
Key takeaways from the article include:
- Within the span of a month, Africa experienced two extraordinary cable disruptions, leading to Internet outages in at least 11 countries across the continent.
- The response from service providers was immediate and connectivity was largely restored within ten days or so.
- The diversity of routes on the East Coast, including those passing through Djibouti, enabled the diversification of traffic, mitigating the impact of cable disruptions.
- Having a good level of redundancy spread across multiple cable systems leads to a much more stable network.
- The world’s Internet runs on subsea cables – there is no viable alternative for running multi-terabit solutions around the world.
Djibouti Telecom’s infrastructure currently comprises of 10 operational submarine cable systems, with 2 additional cable systems currently in development (both due to go live within the next 18 months). Constructed over a span of two decades, our longstanding vision was to build a resilient and extensive network best equipped to provide uninterrupted connectivity for users along the East coast of Africa. These recent events validate our vision and underscore our commitment to becoming a telecom hub for East Africa.