Access

Mauritania’s Internet Revolution: What You Need to Know About Satellite, Speed, and Access in 2025

As of early 2025, about 1.96 million Mauritanians were internet users, roughly 37% of the population. Under the National Digital Transformation Agenda 2022–2025, Mauritania planned to add 4,000 km of fiber backbone by 2025, and by mid-2024 had deployed about 5,500 km with another 2,300 km planned. ACE, landing in Nouakchott since 2012, was the country’s sole international link until 2025, when Mauritania contracted with EllaLink in July 2025 to extend a transatlantic cable with a 500 km Nouadhibou branch, with service due by early 2027. May 2025 marked the launch of Mauritania’s first national Internet Exchange Point (IXP) and

25 August 2025

Internet Access in Nauru: Infrastructure, Access, and Future Outlook

Nauru has a population of about 12,000 and an area of 21 km², with roughly 83% of residents using the internet as of 2023. Since 2022–2023, SpaceX Starlink has become available in Nauru, and the Starlink Community Gateway on Command Ridge began operating in December 2024. In January 2025 Neotel launched a nationwide 5G network in Nauru, marketed as the first nationwide 5G+ network in Oceania. Digicel Nauru launched the island’s first GSM mobile network in August 2009, initially with about a two-year monopoly. Telstra acquired Digicel Pacific in 2021, bringing Digicel Nauru under Australia’s largest telecom group. By 2023

28 July 2025

Digital Access · Infrastructure · Internet · Nauru · Technology

Internet Access in Israel

In early 2024, 92.1% of Israelis—about 8.51 million people—were online, according to DataReportal. Israel has about 10.40 million mobile subscriptions, yielding 112.5% mobile penetration due to multi-SIM usage. Roughly 92.9% of Israelis live in urban areas, with 7.1% rural. Median speeds are high: fixed broadband 167.4 Mbps and mobile 40.2 Mbps (early 2024), and Speedtest ranked Israel around 16th worldwide for fixed broadband with a median of 226.6 Mbps in January 2025. Fiber deployment reached about 45% of homes by early 2024, up from about 35% in 2023, with Bezeq and Partner (Unlimited FTTH) as the main fiber players. HOT

10 July 2025

Access · Connectivity · Internet · Israel · Technology

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

Iran aims to connect 20 million premises with fiber by the end of 2025 under the National Fiber Optic Plan, but rollout is behind schedule. As of early 2024, Iran had 73.1 million internet users (81.7% penetration) and 146.5 million mobile connections, indicating widespread multi-SIM use. Median download speeds were about 15 Mbps on fixed broadband and 37 Mbps on mobile as of May 2024, with mobile often outperforming ADSL. Iran’s 4G coverage is broad (around 90% device coverage), while 5G is in its infancy (about 29% coverage in 2023) with up to 4,000 5G base stations projected by March

24 June 2025

ADSL · Connectivity Revolution · Internet Access · Iran · Starlink

Internet Access in Cameroon: The Race to Connect a Nation

As of early 2025, about 12.4 million Cameroonians were internet users, representing 41.9% of the population. As of 2024, roughly 60% of Cameroonians live in urban areas, with internet access heavily concentrated in cities and rural areas almost inaccessible. Cameroon’s fiber backbone extends over 12,000 kilometers and is connected to five landfall cables: SAT-3, WACS, ACE, SAIL, and NCSCS, with SAIL linking Kribi to Brazil. Plans are underway to add more than 4,000 kilometers of fiber, expanding the backbone to about 17,000–22,000 km and improving regional redundancy. The mobile market is dominated by Orange Cameroon (about 11.7 million subscribers, 39.6%

4 June 2025

Cameroon · Connectivity · Infrastructure · Internet · Technology

Everything You Need to Know About Internet Access in Bulgaria (Even the Satellites!)

By 2021, about 65% of fixed broadband subscribers in Bulgaria were on fiber, with gigabit speeds available and Vivacom launching a 10 Gbps fiber service. 5G was launched commercially in 2020, with A1 Bulgaria and Vivacom turning on 5G in 2020 and by the end of 2022 around 70% of the population expected to have 5G coverage. Starlink entered Bulgaria in February 2022, and as of 2025 Neterra is an authorized Starlink reseller offering hardware and support, with typical speeds over 100 Mbps down and 40–60 ms latency at around €60 per month plus a €300 equipment kit. Vivacom holds

2 June 2025

Access · Bulgaria · Digital Divide · Internet · Satellites

Connecting the Unconnected: The State of Internet Access in the Central African Republic

As of January 2024, CAR had 616,600 internet users, 10.6% internet penetration, and about 89% of the population remained offline. In 2024 there were 1.86 million active cellular mobile connections, equating to a 32.0% mobile penetration. About 56% of Central Africans live in rural areas, with only around 14% of households having electricity. The Central African Backbone fiber project delivered a ~900 km national backbone with 11 PoPs, completed in 2023, linking Bangui to Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, and it spawned a Digital Training Center in Bangui (opened 2023) and the Central African Digital Development Agency. Orange Centrafrique

29 May 2025

Central African Republic · Connectivity · Digital Divide · Internet Access · NYSE:ORAN · Technology

Internet Access in Russia

As of early 2025, Russia had about 133 million internet users, a penetration rate of 92.2% of the population. Russia’s backbone includes over 100 data centers and 38 Internet Exchange Points, with Moscow and St. Petersburg acting as major hubs. There were 216 million active mobile cellular connections in 2025, equal to about 150% of the population, and about 95% of these connections are broadband. Fixed broadband is dominated by fiber, with FTTH/FTTB accounting for more than 90% of fixed lines in many regions and over 31 million fiber broadband subscribers by 2022. In 2023 Russia had approximately 110 mobile

15 May 2025

Connectivity · Guide · Internet · Russia · Travel

Internet Access in Japan: A Comprehensive Overview

SoftBank Corp. holds about 21% of fixed internet subscriptions, KDDI about 19%, NTT Communications (OCN) about 12%, NTT Docomo about 8%, and J:COM about 4%. Japan’s mobile market is led by NTT Docomo with about 42% of mobile subscriptions, KDDI around 30%, SoftBank roughly 25–26%, and Rakuten Mobile about 2% as of 2022. As of 2023, there are approximately 36.6 million FTTH subscriptions out of ~44 million fixed broadband lines, meaning over 80% of fixed connections are fiber. By end of 2024, fiber networks reached about 99.9% of premises, with 1 Gbps residential plans standard and 10 Gbps services like

10 March 2025

Broadband · Digital Trends · Internet · Japan · Technology

Internet Access Services in Kenya

As of early 2024, about 22.7 million Kenyans were internet users, representing 40.8% penetration. Safaricom had 545,812 fixed subscriptions and 36.4% of the fixed broadband market as of mid-2024. Jamii Telecom Faiba held 24.0% of the fixed broadband market, while Wananchi (Zuku) had 17.5%. Poa Internet accounted for about 13.2% of fixed broadband market share. Starlink entered Kenya in July 2023 and reached 16,746 subscribers by January 2025 (about 1.1% of subscriptions). NOFBI aims to reach 100,000 km of fiber by 2026 and has connected all 47 counties. Safaricom expanded its fiber footprint to 14,000 km by March 2023 and

10 March 2025

Connectivity · Internet · Kenya · Services · Technology

Internet Access Services in Kazakhstan

Kazakhtelecom accounts for roughly 60% of Kazakhstan’s telecom market by revenue in 2023 and owns major stakes in mobile operators Kcell and Tele2/Altel. Kar-Tel/Beeline Kazakhstan (VEON) holds about 28% market revenue and is a leading mobile and broadband provider. In internet traffic by autonomous networks, Kazakhtelecom is largest at around 26%, Beeline about 20%, Tele2 Kazakhstan about 19%, and Kcell about 9%, indicating a consumer market duopoly. The Digital Kazakhstan program has expanded fiber nationwide, deploying more than 20,000 kilometers of fiber by 2021 and achieving 118 cities and over 4,500 villages with broadband, covering 97.2% of the population. By

10 March 2025

Connectivity · Internet · Kazakhstan · NASDAQ:VEON · Services · Technology

Internet Access in Yemen: Overview and Key Aspects

Yemen’s bandwidth is dominated by a single aging subsea cable, the FALCON/FLAG system, landing at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, with only a narrow backup via Djibouti and some satellite links. During the civil war, land fiber links to Saudi Arabia were destroyed, leaving Yemen largely dependent on undersea cables. AdenNet was launched in mid-2018 by the internationally recognized government in Aden to provide fiber to institutions and 4G LTE to consumers, independently of Sana’a’s infrastructure and with tens of thousands of subscribers. There are four mobile operators—YOU (Yemeni Omani United, formerly MTN Yemen), Sabafon, Yemen Mobile, and Y

24 February 2025

Connectivity · Internet · Overview · Technology · Yemen