Does the mafia really control Swaziland’s parastatal telecommunications company? Probably not, but such finger-pointing is distracting when the public needs faster and cheaper Internet services.

Lebanon’s leading English daily newspaper recently cited African nations as benchmarks for Internet speeds. Citing Net Index by Ookla speed data, The Daily Star wrote:
…Lebanon’s information economy is stymied by connectivity rates that trail behind states like Zambia and Tanzania, where speeds are twice as fast while GDP per capita …

Originally posted at the Global Broadband and Innovations portal by Jeffrey Swindle (Twitter: @jeffswin, email: jeffswin@gmail.com)
I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about a series of ways that Somalia could get broadband Internet connectivity.  The article was reposted in several British, Somali and Kenyan online newspapers and was …

GSM roaming standards were discussed on the regional level years ago. What’s in store for the regional harmonization of 3G/4G/LTE standards?

Bringing sustainable broadband to the masses requires a balance between the supply-side (providers) and the demand-side (consumers). The sixth chapter of a recent World Bank publication (Building Broadband: Strategies and Policies for the Developing World) has some wise points on how to increase broadband penetration in developing nations:
To induce investment …

Nearly 12 years ago, Global Crossing announced plans to build a 39,000km, $1.6 billion fibre-optic cable around Africa. The project was slated to be completed in three years.