Broadband access has become increasingly available in Africa over the last four years according to the authors of a new report published by Balancing Act. The report is based on a survey of 100 operators on the continent.
According to authors Paul Hamilton and Russell Southwood, between 2001 and the present day a wide range of both wireline and wireless broadband technologies have been deployed across Africa. The first were deployed from around 2001, and the pace has picked up from 2003 onwards. The technologies which have been deployed have changed over time; the most recent trend has seen the implementations of WiMAX 802.16 standard networks which can deliver broadband over a range of up to as far as 75km.
"Uptake of broadband is accelerating in the most developed Internet markets," says Hamilton. "In terms of uptake of broadband, the survey indicates that there are four tiers. The markets of Egypt, Madagascar, Reunion, and South Africa have tens to hundreds of thousands of broadband subscribers. There is a middle tier, such as Senegal, which has between 1 000 and 10 000 subscribers. And then there is a third tier with the majority of other countries which have deployed broadband in which operators currently report several hundred subscribers.
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