Internet Access News 6 August 2025

Mystery Cable Cuts, SpaceX’s $17B Gamble & Satellite Showdowns – Internet Access Roundup (Sept 8–9, 2025)

Key Facts Undersea Cable Cuts Cripple Asia–Middle East Internet A sudden undersea communications crisis struck over the weekend as multiple fiber-optic cables were mysteriously cut in the Red Sea. On Sept 7, internet monitors reported that two critical subsea systems – the SEA-ME-WE 4 and IMEWE cables – were severed near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ts2.tech. The impact was felt across continents: connectivity slowed to a crawl or halted entirely in countries including India, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE ts2.tech. “Multiple countries including India and Pakistan have been affected” by the outage, confirmed NetBlocks, calling it a “series of subsea cable

9 September 2025

Cable Cuts, Crackdowns & Satellite Surges: Global Internet Access Upheavals (7–8 Sept 2025)

Key Facts In-Depth Report Undersea Cable Outage Shakes Asia & Mideast A sudden severing of multiple undersea internet cables in the Red Sea over the weekend sent shockwaves through global connectivity. On September 7, monitoring groups reported that two major subsea fiber systems (the SEA-ME-WE 4 and IMEWE cables) were cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, dramatically slowing or disrupting internet service in countries including India, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE beaumontenterprise.com beaumontenterprise.com. NetBlocks called it “a series of subsea cable outages” that degraded connectivity across the region beaumontenterprise.com. Technology giant Microsoft alerted Azure cloud customers to expect increased latency

8 September 2025

Censorship · Global Connectivity · Internet Access · NASDAQ:AMZN · NASDAQ:JBLU · NASDAQ:MSFT · Satellites · Technology

Internet Access in Togo: Surprising Stats and the Race to Connect a Nation

Overview of Internet Access in Togo Togo is a small West African nation making significant strides in digital connectivity. Internet usage has grown steadily over the past decade. By January 2024, 3.44 million Togolese were Internet users, about 37.6% of the population datareportal.com. This marks a substantial increase from just a few years prior (for example, in 2016, usage was roughly half of today’s level blog.google). Still, it means nearly 6 million people (62%) remain offline datareportal.com, indicating plenty of room for growth. The majority of non-users are in rural and low-income segments, constrained by coverage gaps, costs, and digital

6 September 2025

Africa · Connectivity · Digital Development · Internet Access · Togo

Papua New Guinea’s Internet Access Crisis: Sky-High Costs, Bold Plans, and a Digital Divide

Key Facts Overview: A Nation Still Largely Offline Papua New Guinea (PNG) faces an uphill battle in bringing internet access to its population, which is dispersed across difficult terrain and hundreds of islands. General internet penetration remains very low – only about 24.1% of the population were internet users at the start of 2025 datareportal.com datareportal.com. In other words, roughly three out of every four Papua New Guineans have never been online. This rate is starkly below the global average and even lags behind many neighboring Pacific Island countries. The total number of internet users was estimated at 2.57 million

5 September 2025

Connectivity · Digital Divide · Internet Access · Papua New Guinea · Technology Policy

Blackouts, Crackdowns & Broadband Booms: Internet Access News Roundup (Sept 3–4, 2025)

Infrastructure and Satellite Expansions Over the past 48 hours, major investments in physical internet infrastructure were unveiled worldwide. SpaceX capped a busy summer of launches with yet another batch of 24 Starlink broadband satellites lifted into orbit on August 29 ts2.tech. This marked SpaceX’s fourth Starlink launch in a month, expanding its constellation (now over 8,000 active satellites) and improving coverage in high-latitude regions like Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia ts2.tech. With this growth, Starlink continues to deliver high-speed internet to remote areas in dozens of countries. And it’s not alone – Amazon’s Project Kuiper, a rival low-Earth orbit satellite network, is

4 September 2025

Broadband · Connectivity · Digital Divide · Internet Access · NASDAQ:AMZN · NASDAQ:META · NYSE:VZ · Tech Policy

Mali’s Internet Revolution: Surprising Facts & Bold Plans for a Digital Future

Introduction Mali, a large landlocked nation in West Africa, is undergoing a digital transformation against challenging odds. Internet access has grown from almost zero at the turn of the century to reaching roughly a third of the population today extensia.tech. This expansion is driven primarily by mobile phones, as fixed broadband infrastructure is scarce developingtelecoms.com. However, millions of Malians – especially in rural and conflict-prone areas – remain offline, highlighting a significant digital divide. In this report, we delve into the state of internet access in Mali, covering how people get online, who provides the service, the hurdles faced in

2 September 2025

Africa · Digital Future · Internet Access · Mali · NYSE:ORAN · Technology

Internet Access Upheaval: Censorship Crackdowns, Satellite Booms & Shutdowns Rock the Globe (Aug 31 – Sep 1, 2025)

Key Facts Government Crackdowns on Digital Access Russia doubles down on censorship: In a dramatic escalation of internet control, Russia implemented new laws on September 1 targeting both communication platforms and online content. The Kremlin is forcing a switch from WhatsApp and Telegram to a domestic messaging app called “Max,” which was launched in June by state-controlled tech firm VK thebarentsobserver.com thebarentsobserver.com. All phones sold in Russia from Sept 1 onward will come with “Max” pre-installed as the default, and officials are pressuring businesses and even universities to adopt it. At the same time, merely viewing or searching for banned information online

1 September 2025

Censorship · Global News · Internet Access · NASDAQ:CMCSA · NYSE:T · Satellite Internet · Technology Policy

From Satellite Struggles to Starlink: Inside Solomon Islands’ Internet Access Revolution

The Coral Sea Cable System is a 4,700 km submarine fiber‑optic link completed in late 2019 and brought online in 2020, connecting Solomon Islands to Papua New Guinea and Australia with an initial 200 Gbps capacity and up to 20 Tbps total. Since going live, the Coral Sea cable has allowed ten times more data at the same price for users in Honiara and provincial capitals. Our Telekom launched 4G/LTE in Honiara in 2017, Bmobile-Vodafone followed around 2018, and by 2025 4G is present in parts of Guadalcanal, Malaita, Western, and Choiseul, with 50 remote villages lit in 2024–2025 via

17 August 2025

Global Connectivity · Infrastructure · Internet Access · NYSE:VOD · Satellite Technology · Telecommunications

Internet Access in Serbia 2025: Broadband Booms, 5G on Horizon, and Starlink in Sight

As of early 2025, Serbia had about 2.23 million fixed broadband subscribers. The median fixed broadband download speed reached 90.2 Mbps at the start of 2025. Telekom Srbija’s mts Fiber offers up to 1 Gbps speeds, with symmetric options such as 200/200, 400/400, and 600/600 Mbps, while SBB provides up to around 1 Gbps in fiber-connected buildings via FTTH or DOCSIS 3.1. Mobile networks cover ~99% of the population with 3G and over 90% with 4G, and 96.6% of mobile connections are broadband-capable (3G/4G/5G) as of January 2025. As of 2025, Serbia has not launched commercial 5G services yet; a

14 August 2025

5G · Broadband · Internet Access · Serbia · Starlink

Inside Lesotho’s Digital Divide: The Truth About Internet Access and Satellite Connectivity

Lesotho’s internet use shows a stark urban–rural divide: about 77% of urban residents use the internet compared with 43% of rural residents, while roughly 31% of the population lives in urban areas and 69% in rural areas. Mobile broadband is the backbone of connectivity, with Vodacom Lesotho and Econet Telecom Lesotho (ETL) delivering 3G coverage to about 95–100% of the population and 4G coverage to about 85% (land 66.6%), while 2G covers about 98%. As of early 2025, Lesotho had 2.07 million active mobile subscriptions (roughly 88% of the population) and about 1.13 million internet users (48% penetration). Starlink arrived

12 August 2025

Digital Divide · Internet Access · Lesotho · Satellite Connectivity · Technology

The Truth About Internet Access in Slovakia: How Fast, How Cheap, and Is Satellite the Future?

FTTH/B fiber is the dominant fixed broadband in Slovakia, delivering up to 1 Gbps download and hundreds of Mbps upload, with typical latency 5–20 ms, and by 2022 about 66.8% of households were covered by FTTP, with gigabit targets by 2030. DSL remains in use where fiber is not available, offering ADSL up to 8–20 Mbps and VDSL up to 50–100 Mbps, and as of late 2023 about 53% of households had ADSL/VDSL access. Cable Internet via DOCSIS 3.1 (UPC/Vodafone) provides up to 500–1000 Mbps down and 50–100 Mbps up with 10–30 ms latency, and about 17.9% of households are

11 August 2025

Broadband · Internet Access · NYSE:ORAN · NYSE:TEF · NYSE:VOD · Satellite Internet · Slovakia · Technology

Inside Rwanda’s Internet Revolution: How the Nation Is Connecting Remote Villages and Launching Satellites

Rwanda’s first internet access occurred around 1996, and by 2000 there were about 5,000 users (less than 0.1% of the population). In 2004 Rwanda privatized Rwandatel and sold it to Terracom, opening the ISP market to competition. Between 2008 and 2010, Rwanda laid over 3,000 km of national fiber backbone across all 30 districts, linking to SEACOM, EASSy and TEAMS in 2009, driving international bandwidth costs from about $3,000 per Mbps in 2006 to roughly $25 per Mbps. In 2013, Korea Telecom Rwanda Networks (KTRN) built a nationwide 4G network on a wholesale-only basis, achieving over 95% population coverage by

6 August 2025

Internet Access · Rwanda · Satellite Communication · Social Impact · Technology Development

Internet Access News 6 August 2025 - 9 September 2025