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I stumbled into this  today
FYI
             Sci/Tech

             Circle of light is Africa's Net
             gain



             By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David
             Whitehouse

             Africa will soon be surrounded by a ring of laser light, as

             a new undersea, fibre-optic cable is constructed. The
             cable will transform high-speed communications with the
             continent.

             Experts have said that it will plug Africa into the
             high-speed Internet world and could herald an African
             renaissance.

             The optic-fibre cable is long enough to circle the Earth
             and will be laid by robotic submarines. The project will
             cost $1.6 billion and aims to be completed in 2002.

             Link to the wired world

             "The system will fully integrate the African continent into

             the global broadband telecommunications network,"
             says Steve Fassoulis, chairman of the Africa One
             consortium.


                                 The optic cable will be
                                 state-of-the-art, able to carry
                                 up to 40 gigabits of data per
                                 second. It will also be
                                 self-healing, able to repair
                                 itself if it is damaged.

                                 It will have two dozen
                                 "landing points", where the
                                 cable comes ashore.
                                 Countries with no coastline
                                 will be connected to it by
                                 terrestrial optical fibre,
                                 microwave or satellite links.

             The data cable will provide Africa with a
             telecommunications "backbone" that will connect the
             most isolated continent to the rest of the world.

             Billion dollar savings

             "The telecommunications sector in Africa is developing
             rapidly," says Fassoulis, "Deregulation, privatisation and
             competition throughout Africa are creating a robust
             demand for new services, especially the Internet."

             The Africa One network is expected to save countries
             hundreds of millions of dollars a year in communication
             costs.

             According to Joseph Ceva, president of Africa One, the
             system will boost trade and investment in Africa.

             The optical fibre will be built by Lucent Technologies of
             the US and Global Crossing Ltd will lay it on the sea
             floor.

             Continental co-operation

             The concept of circling Africa with a fibre optic cable was

             first proposed in 1993 at a meeting of African
             telecommunications ministers. Thirty African countries
             are now a part of the project.

             Experts believe that Africa cannot afford to be without a
             high capacity communications connection to the rest of
             the world. Currently only South Africa is well connected.

             World-wide voice traffic is increasing at 13 per cent a
             year, but data traffic is increasing at an even faster
rate.
             Over the past five years, Internet traffic has increased by

             86 per cent a year.

             Optical fibre is the most efficient way of relaying data,
so
             the laying of optical cable has increased dramatically. In
             1997, there was 30 million kilometres of optic-fibre cable
             world-wide. By the end of 2001 it is expected to be 45
             million km.

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