Growth in international Internet capacity connected to Africa outpaces all other regions of the world, new research shows.

African Internet bandwidth grew by 41% between 2014 and 2015, and by 51% compounded annually over the past five years, to reach 2,9Tbit/s, according to new data from TeleGeography’s Global Internet Geography research service.

Worldwide international Internet capacity growth continues to slow, falling from 41% in 2011 to 31% in 2015, TeleGeography says. Yet, even with the declining pace of growth, backbone operators deployed 43Tbit/s of new capacity in the past year alone.

Despite the varying pace of new deployments, Internet capacity growth has slowed in all regions over the past five years. This trend has been especially apparent in Africa. Despite the continent recording strong capacity growth between 2011 and 2015, it was a far cry from the 93% compound annual growth rate seen between 2006 and 2010,” the researchers say. Read more