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JSE:MTN 7 February 2025 - 9 September 2025

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

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

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 outages” hitting the region reuters.com ts2.tech. Major Gulf telecoms Etisalat and Du experienced nationwide slowdowns, prompting user complaints of sluggish speeds ts2.tech. Even Microsoft sounded the alarm – Azure cloud customers were told to expect higher latency after “multiple undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea” forced data to detour on longer paths reuters.com.
9 September 2025
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Global Internet Access Shockwaves: Cable Cuts, Censorship & Broadband Booms (Sept 6–7, 2025)

Global Internet Access Shockwaves: Cable Cuts, Censorship & Broadband Booms (Sept 6–7, 2025)

On September 6, a sudden multi-cable break in the Red Sea sent shockwaves through global connectivity. Several undersea fiber-optic cables were simultaneously cut near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia beaumontenterprise.com. The impact was felt across continents – internet traffic between Europe/Asia and the Middle East slowed to a crawl, and countries like Pakistan and India experienced degraded service beaumontenterprise.com. Microsoft’s Azure cloud warned users of increased latency as data was rerouted onto backup paths beaumontenterprise.com. In the Gulf, UAE customers on du and Etisalat noticed sluggish speeds beaumontenterprise.com. While the exact cause remains unclear, the incident raised alarms about possible sabotage amid regional conflicts. Experts noted that even an errant ship anchor can sever these vital lines in shallow seas beaumontenterprise.com. Repairs are underway, but with multiple deep-sea cuts, full restoration could take weeks.
7 September 2025
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Global Internet Access Shake-Up: Outages, Crackdowns, and a Race to Connect the Unconnected

Global Internet Access Shake-Up: Outages, Crackdowns, and a Race to Connect the Unconnected

Major investments in physical internet infrastructure were unveiled over the past 48 hours, spanning undersea cables and satellites. SpaceX completed its fourth Starlink launch from California in a month, lofting 24 satellites on August 29 to enhance coverage in polar regions. This bolsters SpaceX’s constellation of over 8,000 active satellites, which is already delivering broadband to dozens of countries. Rival project Kuiper – Amazon’s satellite internet network – is also accelerating: Amazon announced it expects to begin beta service by late 2025, after deploying its first 27 satellites in April and scheduling another launch for Sept. 25. Kuiper plans to eventually operate 3,200+ satellites aimed at blanketing underserved areas with up to 1 Gbps speeds. These satellite rollouts are poised to bring connectivity to remote communities from the Arctic to rural Asia, complementing ground networks.
3 September 2025
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How Guinea Is Quietly Getting Online: The Untold Story of Internet Access and Satellite Expansion

How Guinea Is Quietly Getting Online: The Untold Story of Internet Access and Satellite Expansion

Guinea, a West African nation often overshadowed by its neighbors, is undergoing a quiet digital transformation. Long marked by limited connectivity, the country is now seeing gradual improvements in internet access through mobile network expansion, new fiber-optic infrastructure, and emerging satellite services. This report provides a comprehensive overview of Guinea’s internet landscape – from current infrastructure and service providers to government initiatives and challenges – and compares its progress with neighboring countries. Despite low baseline indicators, recent developments suggest Guinea is steadily getting online, bridging a digital divide in a way that has largely gone untold.
24 August 2025
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Inside Rwanda’s Internet Revolution: How the Nation Is Connecting Remote Villages and Launching Satellites

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

Rwanda has emerged as one of Africa’s digital trailblazers, transforming from a nation with almost no internet access in the 1990s to an ambitious ICT hub today. This report delves into Rwanda’s internet revolution – from the historical rollout of infrastructure to the latest efforts connecting remote villages and even leveraging satellites for connectivity. We examine how Rwanda built its networks, current access statistics, major players and technologies, government policies, the urban-rural digital divide, affordability issues, the advent of satellite internet via Starlink and others, comparisons with neighbors, and what the future holds for Rwanda’s digital infrastructure.
6 August 2025
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Eswatini’s Internet Access in 2025: 5G, Starlink & Surprising Coverage

Eswatini’s Internet Access in 2025: 5G, Starlink & Surprising Coverage

Eswatini has seen rapid growth in connectivity. Mobile subscribers exceed 1.6 million datareportal.com, of which ~1.47 million are mobile broadband connections esccom.org.sz. About 720,000 people use the internet datareportal.com. Smartphone adoption is high esccom.org.sz, but fixed broadband remains small esccom.org.sz. Two mobile operators – MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile – provide 2G/3G/4G services nationwide, while dozens of ISPs compete in fixed and mobile data. Despite this growth, average download speeds remain modest and internet costs are relatively high, limiting affordability.
11 July 2025
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Iran’s Internet Access Exposed: From Aging ADSL to an Underground Starlink Revolution

Iran’s Internet Access Exposed: From Aging ADSL to an Underground Starlink Revolution

Iran’s internet infrastructure is a mix of aging fixed broadband and expanding mobile networks, all under strain from sanctions and state control. Fixed broadband largely relies on ADSL and a limited fiber-optic rollout. The government has ambitious fiber plans – aiming to cover 20 million premises with fiber by end of 2025 – but progress has been slow businesswire.com. As of early 2024, Iran had about 73.1 million internet users and 146.5 million mobile connections, indicating many users carry multiple SIMs freedomhouse.org. Median download speeds remain modest: about 15 Mbps on fixed broadband vs 37 Mbps on mobile as of May 2024 freedomhouse.org. This means mobile 4G networks often outperform Iran’s sluggish ADSL links. Indeed, the country’s 4G coverage is broad, while true 5G is in its infancy pulse.internetsociety.org. Major operators have piloted 5G in urban centers, and the telecom regulator projected up to 4,000 5G base stations by March 2025 businesswire.com. However, rollout has been hampered by limited spectrum availability and underinvestment businesswire.com capacitymedia.com. In short, Iran boasts one of the largest, youngest online populations in the Middle East, but outdated infrastructure and slow upgrades leave a gap between user demand and network quality.
24 June 2025
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South Africa’s Internet Access Revolution: The Shocking Truth About Connectivity in 2025

South Africa’s Internet Access Revolution: The Shocking Truth About Connectivity in 2025

South Africa’s internet infrastructure has transformed dramatically over the past decade, moving from copper phone lines to lightning-fast fiber optics and 5G wireless. Fixed-line broadband is now dominated by fiber, as old ADSL connections vanish. Telkom – the former monopoly – had over 1 million ADSL subscribers at its peak around 2015, but by the end of 2024 fewer than 36,000 remained on copper lines mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za. This 96% collapse in DSL usage reflects customers migrating to fiber and wireless broadband. Fiber-to-the-home subscriptions surged from 1.49 million in 2023 to 2.47 million in 2024 newsletter.en.creamermedia.com – a jump driven by aggressive rollouts from Telkom’s Openserve, Vumatel, and other fiber network operators. Major cities now enjoy extensive fiber coverage, delivering high-speed, uncapped internet to homes and businesses.
19 June 2025
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The Digital Lifeline: Inside Ghana’s Internet Revolution from Fiber to Satellite

The Digital Lifeline: Inside Ghana’s Internet Revolution from Fiber to Satellite

Ghana has seen a rapid rise in internet usage over the past decade, evolving from single-digit penetration in 2010 to nearly 70% of the population online today. As of early 2025, approximately 24.3 million Ghanaians were internet users, representing an internet penetration rate of 69.9% datareportal.com. This is a dramatic increase from just 8% in 2010, thanks to expanding mobile networks and cheaper devices blogs.worldbank.org. The country had 38.3 million active mobile connections by 2025, indicating many people use multiple SIM cards datareportal.com. Most of these connections are now data-capable – over 93% of mobile connections are on 3G, 4G, or 5G networks datareportal.com – underscoring the dominance of mobile broadband in Ghana’s connectivity landscape.
15 June 2025
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Côte d’Ivoire’s Internet Revolution: Fiber Optics, 5G Dreams, and Satellite Solutions

Côte d’Ivoire’s Internet Revolution: Fiber Optics, 5G Dreams, and Satellite Solutions

Côte d’Ivoire is undergoing a digital transformation, rapidly expanding internet infrastructure and connectivity across the country Trade. Fueled by government ambition to become a West African digital hub Trade, investments in fiber-optic networks, mobile broadband, and even satellite internet are reshaping how Ivorians access the online world. Internet usage has grown from only a fraction of the population two decades ago to roughly 38–41% of citizens today Internetsociety, but significant gaps remain between urban and rural areas. This report provides a comprehensive look at Côte d’Ivoire’s internet access landscape – from ultra-fast fiber in city centers to innovative satellite projects for remote villages – covering infrastructure status, key providers, usage trends, affordability, policies, recent developments, and how the country stacks up against its West African peers.
8 June 2025
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Internet Access in Cameroon: The Race to Connect a Nation

Internet Access in Cameroon: The Race to Connect a Nation

Cameroon, a Central African nation of about 29.5 million people, is racing to improve internet connectivity for its citizens. As of early 2025, roughly 41.9% of the population uses the internet, leaving the majority still offline datareportal.com bmz-digital.global. Internet access has grown rapidly over the past decade, yet it remains unevenly distributed and faces many challenges. Urban centers enjoy far more connectivity than rural villages, creating a significant digital divide. This report provides a comprehensive overview of internet access in Cameroon – from current penetration levels and infrastructure, to service providers and costs, to the challenges and initiatives shaping the country’s digital future. Key comparisons with other African nations are included to contextualize Cameroon’s progress. The goal is to shed light on Cameroon’s connectivity landscape and the “race” to get the nation online, examining both achievements to date and the road ahead.
4 June 2025
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Internet Access in Sudan

Internet Access in Sudan

Sudan’s internet infrastructure relies on a national fiber-optic backbone and international gateways centered at Port Sudan. The country is connected to several submarine cables, including the East Africa Submarine System and FLAG/FALCON networks, which land at the Red Sea coast​ en.wikipedia.org. Terrestrial fiber links extend to neighboring countries to route traffic regionally. However, fixed-line broadband infrastructure is limited and much of the population accesses the internet via wireless networks. Sudan maintains satellite earth stations for international connectivity as well​ en.wikipedia.org, but satellite links historically served mainly as backups or for remote areas.
25 February 2025
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Internet Access in Yemen: Overview and Key Aspects

Internet Access in Yemen: Overview and Key Aspects

Yemen’s internet infrastructure is limited and highly centralized. The backbone relies on a few aging international connections and an outdated domestic network. A single subsea cable – the FALCON/FLAG system landing at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah – carries most of Yemen’s bandwidth​ ukraine.wilsoncenter.org​ washingtoninstitute.org. In fact, almost all connectivity comes through this one aging cable, with only a narrow backup link via Djibouti and some expensive satellite links​ washingtoninstitute.org. During the civil war, land fiber links to Saudi Arabia were destroyed, leaving the country largely dependent on undersea cables​ washingtoninstitute.org. Internal infrastructure consists of microwave relays and limited fiber, with fixed-line broadband largely delivered via old DSL over copper telephone lines​ smex.org. This network has not seen significant upgrades during the conflict, resulting in very low bandwidth and reliability​ smex.org.
24 February 2025
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Internet Access in Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Overview

Internet Access in Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Overview

Afghanistan’s internet infrastructure is relatively underdeveloped, relying heavily on mobile networks and limited fixed broadband. After 2001, the country had to build its telecom network from scratch, as the previous Taliban regime had effectively banned the internet​ Wired. In the two decades that followed, mobile telecommunications saw rapid growth – rising from zero subscribers in 2001 to nearly a 100% mobile subscription penetration by 2021​ Businesswire. A nationwide fiber-optic backbone was being rolled out and even a 400 km cross-border fiber link to China was near completion in 2021​ Businesswire. However, the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 stalled or halted many of these projects​ Businesswire​ Businesswire, casting uncertainty on the finalization of the fiber network.
24 February 2025
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Internet Access in Syria

Internet Access in Syria

Syria was relatively late in opening internet access to the public. An internet connection was established in the country by 1997, but for years Syria was the only connected Middle Eastern country that did not allow general public access Hrw. In the late 1990s, only government institutions and a few individuals could get online Hrw. This cautious rollout reflected official policy: the regime under President Hafez al-Assad took a “go-slow” approach, fearing the free flow of information. All media in Syria were tightly controlled, and officials were wary that the internet could enable dissent Hrw. Even Bashar al-Assad advocated for expanding internet access, but security services resisted due to concerns over “making it safe” for a traditional society Hrw. Public internet access only truly began around 2000, shortly after Bashar al-Assad took power Thenetmonitor.
7 February 2025
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