Facebook wants to build an undersea cable around Africa – The Wall Street Journal

Facebook is in talks to develop an underwater data cable that would encircle Africa, in an effort to drive down bandwidth costs and sign up more users.

Published on:

08 Apr 2019, 2:00 am

DUBLIN — It's a tale as old as time. When a product developed in rich countries gets into regulatory hot water, its owners start to sniff around the developing world for opportunities. They're hoping, presumably, that regulation will be less robust and people less well protected in places that are still trying to achieve takeoff velocity. Cigarettes are a great example of this. After decades of litigation and millions in fines – not to mention widespread anti-smoking campaigns – tobacco companies have given up on America as a growth market. Instead, they're looking at Africa and emerging Asia, where governments have done less to protect citizens from the deadly cancer sticks. Now, Facebook is looking to build an undersea cable around Africa to bring bandwidth – and Facebook's advertising juggernaut – to Africa's growing, youthful population. Better broadband would be great for the continent, but not if all it brings is the political disruption and chicanery that Facebook seems to breed. And not if Facebook's goal is just to suck all the ad money out of Africa because her governments haven't yet started to regulate against its bad behaviours. – Felicity Duncan