The Digital Desert: Inside Equatorial Guinea’s Struggle for Internet Access
Equatorial Guinea is an oil-rich nation often dubbed a “digital desert” due to its severely limited internet access. Despite one of Africa’s highest GDPs per capita, the country has among the world’s worst connectivity in terms of cost, speed, and availability newscentral.africa connectingafrica.com. With internet prices reaching nearly $50 per gigabyte – the most expensive globally connectingafrica.com connectingafrica.com – going online remains a luxury few can afford. This report explores how historical, infrastructural, and political factors have shaped Equatorial Guinea’s internet landscape, and what efforts are underway to bridge the digital divide. Equatorial Guinea came late to the internet revolution. Full internet access was first introduced in 1997 via a connection through France integrallc.com. For many years afterward, growth was slow under a state-controlled telecom monopoly. By 2010, only about 2% of the population were internet users integrallc.com. A single state-owned provider, GETESA, dominated the market, and connectivity was initially delivered mainly through expensive satellite links integrallc.com integrallc.com.