Backbone Infrastructure

Large transmission cables are commonly referred to as backbone infrastructure. High-capacity backbone networks within and between African countries are currently poorly developed.  With regard to international connectivity, the fundamental issue is to complete the network of submarine cables surrounding the continent to ensure that all coastal countries have access to the inter-continental network.

At present, submarine cables exist for Western and Southern Africa although they do not yet provide full access to all countries.  No submarine infrastructure is yet in place on the Eastern side of the continent -- though a cable serving Eastern Africa (EASSy) is expected to become operational in 2010.

In addition, there is a need for intra-regional backbones both to ensure that landlocked countries secure access to submarine infrastructure, and to facilitate communications within and across the main economic regions of Africa.  There are fewer circuits interconnecting Africa with the rest of the world and most international traffic transits through Europe.  As a result, a significant portion of the revenue from international calls is used to pay the European network operators making it difficult for Africans to upgrade the infrastructure.

At national and regional levels, significant efforts are underway to provide new fibre-optic and microwave networks.  Some of the national/regional backbone projects have taken advantage of electricity grids, railway lines and oil pipelines and right of passage to install fibre-optic cable.  

The World Bank expects to double its commitments to ICT in Africa to $2 billion by 2012, the EU announced €6 million for regulatory reform initiatives and the AfDB has committed close to $65 million to two key regional infrastructure projects – RASCOM satellite and the EASSy submarine cable in East Africa.