So the pundits say that the impending arrival of at least to international submarine fibre cables at Mombasa - Kenya's coastal frontier - later this year is set to trigger a significant increase in economic activity. The Eastern African seaboard has been exclusively dependent upon satellite connectivity for linkage with the rest of the world, thus the advent of these cable systems will be a watershed for the region by bringing lower cost connectivity with many times better quality.
There is presently a flurry of activity in the East African region, with many operators deploying metro, regional, national and cross-border fibre optic networks. Parallel to this is the aggressive rollout of a slew of last-mile broadband access networks - presumably to ensure that as much of the bandwidth that comes off the submarine cables can be delivered directly to users.
Exciting times for sure!
