Eritrea’s Digital Desert: Inside the World’s Most Isolated Internet – and the Satellite Lifeline on the Horizon
As of early 2024, about 26% of Eritrea’s 3.7 million people were internet users. Eritrea is the only coastal African nation with zero submarine fiber-optic cable landings. The telecom sector is entirely state-owned and monopolized by Eritrean Telecommunication Services Corporation (EriTel), with no private ISPs or competing mobile operators. Public mobile data is essentially unavailable; the mobile network runs on 2G GSM with 3G/4G largely disabled for ordinary users. Fixed broadband remains extremely limited, with fewer than 150 subscriptions in the mid-2010s. Internet cafés are the primary access point, with fewer than 10 in Asmara and roughly 100 nationwide. EriTel’s
