Loni Prinsloo

SpaceX’s Starlink touts its high-speed internet as “available almost anywhere on Earth.” In the real world, its reach extends to countries where Elon Musk’s satellite-enabled service has no agreement to operate, including territories ruled by repressive regimes. There are wide-spanning examples of Starlink kits being traded and activated illegally.

MTN Group, Africa’s biggest mobile-phone operator, plans to build a $320 million inland fiber cable to connect ten countries, as telecommunications companies push to expand service to the continent’s growing population. The Johannesburg-based firm, through its MTN GlobalConnect unit and the Africa50 infrastructure investment agency, will start building the East2West link in the fourth quarter of 2023, MTN said. The project will add about 20,000 kilometers (12,400 miles) of new cable and interconnect over 100,000 kilometers of fiber.