Growth in international Internet capacity connected to Africa outpaces all other regions of the world, new research shows.
African Internet bandwidth grew by 41% between 2014 and 2015, and by 51% compounded annually over the past five years, to reach 2,9Tbit/s, according to new data from TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography research service.
Worldwide international Internet capacity growth continues to slow, falling from 41% in 2011 to 31% in 2015, TeleGeography says. Yet, even with the declining pace of growth, backbone operators deployed 43Tbit/s of new capacity in the past year alone.
Despite the varying pace of new deployments, Internet capacity growth has slowed in all regions over the past five years. This trend has been especially apparent in Africa. Despite the continent recording strong capacity growth between 2011 and 2015, it was a far cry from the 93% compound annual growth rate seen between 2006 and 2010,” the researchers say.
Oceania saw the second fastest growth rate of 47%/year between 2011 and 2015, while capacity in Latin America and the Middle East grew by 44%/year. The Middle East is served by 8,4Tbit/s of capacity, or almost three times the capacity of the systems connecting Africa.
“While North African and sub-Saharan African international Internet bandwidth increased by more than 90% compounded annually between 2006 and 2010, growth rates among the sub-regions have varied substantially in recent years,” TeleGeography says.
“Between 2011 and 2015, Internet bandwidth connected to countries in sub-Saharan Africa rose at a much faster clip than that connected to North African countries, growing by 66%/year and 43%/year respectively,” it says.
TeleGeography attributes this to new cable builds on the east and west coasts of Africa, including Ace, Seacom, Eassy and Wacs, along with new terrestrial networks, which have greatly increased available capacity in the sub-Saharan region.
“Meanwhile, content is moving to Africa as content delivery network services emerge and Google global cache servers are installed, tempering demand for long-haul capacity,” it said. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media
