The Future of African Fiber - 2023: How a Data Traffic Boom, Hyperscale Subsea Cables and Cloud Services Are Transforming African Fiber Models

African Fiber Market in the Midst of Transformation

Few markets symbolize the frenetic race to build up Africa’s digital infrastructure as much as the fiber market. From the data center to the home, fiber networks provide the pipes that interconnect facilities, cities, countries, and the broader African continent to the global Internet - and to itself. 

The African fiber market has witnessed significant infrastructure build over the past decade. Twenty five new Africa-focused submarine cables have landed in the region since 2010, bringing in more than 500 Tbps of potential international capacity. Terrestrial fiber deployments have crossed the 1 million kilometer-mark; dozens of thousands of mobile network sites are being fiberized to support mobile broadband. Last mile fiber networks now pass more than 10 million homes and businesses across the region, four times more than only five years ago. Today, fiber networks are an essential enabler of what we have called Africa’s age of cloud; they are the glue that binds together the African Internet.

The African fiber market is in the midst of significant change. The irrepressible growth of data traffic is exploding IP transit requirements. Soaring demand for cloud and data center connectivity and impending 5G deployments are transforming metro fiber markets. The rollout of software-defined networks (SDN) is transforming how African wholesale capacity is provisioned. The arrival of hyperscale cables Equiano, 2Africa and PEACE is not just bringing new capacity; the new cables are actively reshaping traditional international capacity sales models, forcing wholesale carriers to evolve their business models. 

This is a market rife with paradox. Much has been achieved - and yet, so much remains to be done to extend the reach of fiber. International capacity buildout is booming, yet economic value has shifted to terrestrial fiber networks. Only a fraction of available international bandwidth is currently in use - and yet supply is being multiplied by a factor of 4 or 5. The region remains highly fragmented into small regulatory fiefdoms - and yet economic value increasingly requires borderless, continental, on-net scale.

The Future of African Fiber report series explores all these questions and more. It is the outcome of a long, arduous and ambitious effort - an attempt to provide an in-depth view into key trends, economics and overall potential of the African fiber market, from the first mile to the last mile. As is now Xalam tradition, our commitment remains unyielding, to deliver to you the best research value for money you will find on this topic, on these markets. Anywhere