Africa

Beyond Starlink: Inside the New Space Race for Satellite Internet Dominance in 2025

Vodacom Strikes Starlink Deal to Accelerate African Broadband Rollout

South Africa’s largest mobile operator will integrate Starlink’s low‑Earth‑orbit capacity into its network and resell the satellite service where licensed, targeting faster connectivity and better rural coverage across the continent. Published: November 12, 2025 Vodacom Group has signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink to bring high‑speed, low‑latency internet to businesses across Africa, marking one of the highest‑profile tie‑ups yet between a major African carrier and a satellite provider. Vodacom said it will fold Starlink’s technology into its mobile network and is authorized to resell Starlink equipment and services to customers in African markets. Reuters What’s in the deal The

12 November 2025

From Sand to Signal: The Shocking Reality of Internet Access in the Sahara

The Sahara spans about 9 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles) across North Africa and covers ten countries: Algeria, Mali, Niger, Chad, Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. A Trans-Saharan Fiber Backbone is under development to connect Algeria, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and Tunisia along the Trans-Saharan Highway, tying inland towns to multiple submarine cable gateways, with Chad’s 559 km link from N’Djamena toward the Niger border nearly finished by late 2024. Chad obtained its first international fiber link in 2012 and today still has no nationwide fiber backbone connecting its towns. Only about 10–12% of Chadians have

18 August 2025

Africa · Digital Divide · Infrastructure · Internet · NYSE:ORAN · Technology

The Digital Desert Awakens: Inside Tunisia’s Expanding Internet Frontier

As of early 2024, about 9.96 million Tunisians were internet users, roughly 79.6% of the population. In January 2024, Tunisia had 16.73 million active mobile connections, equal to 133.7% of the population. 99.9% of the population is covered by mobile signals, with 4G reaching about 94.9% of inhabitants. Tunisie Telecom’s fiber backbone spans roughly 50,000 km, and late-2024 initiatives connected 2,900 homes in Tataouine (~7,000 users) via fiber at about $160,000. International bandwidth capacity grew from 82.5 Gbps in 2012 to about 1,710 Gbps in 2023. 5G licensing occurred in September 2024, initial licenses were granted in November 2024, and

24 June 2025

Africa · Digital Transformation · Internet · NYSE:ORAN · Technology · Tunisia

The Digital Desert: Inside Equatorial Guinea’s Struggle for Internet Access

Equatorial Guinea is described as a digital desert due to the internet’s high cost, slow speeds, and limited availability. Internet access began in 1997 via a France-backed connection, and by 2010 only about 2% of the population were internet users. GETESA, the state-dominated operator, held about 60% ownership with Orange S.A. around 40%, and controlled international gateways via GITGE. HiTs Telecom launched Green Com (Muni) around 2011, and GECOMSA was created in 2012 to expand competition. Equatorial Guinea connected to the ACE submarine cable in 2012, and domestic Ceiba-1 and Ceiba-2 cables linked the mainland Rio Muni with Bioko. Internet

12 June 2025

Africa · Digital Divide · Human Rights · Internet Access · NYSE:ORAN · Telecommunications

Chad’s Digital Desert: The Shocking Truth Behind the Country’s Internet Revolution

As of 2025, Chad has about 2.74 million internet users (13.2% of the population), with roughly 87% of Chadians still offline. There are about 14.5 million active mobile subscriptions in Chad (roughly 70% of the population) in 2025, with many people owning multiple SIM cards. Chad has just one Internet Exchange Point in N’Djamena, and as of 2025 about 33% of the country’s networks exchange traffic locally at DJAMIX. Fixed broadband is virtually non-existent in Chad, with zero fixed subscriptions and mobile networks providing the main internet access, where 2G covers about 85% of the population and 3G/4G only about

6 June 2025

Africa · Chad · Digital Transformation · Internet · Technology