Despite all the initial excitement that greeted the landing or announcement of new cables and backbone networks in Africa, disappointment is setting in. Prices for Internet access have gone down by a factor of 2 rather than 10 as expected. Indeed prices are still high in most of Africa outside a few North Africa countries and others like Senegal. South Africa is a most puzzling case where prices are still higher than even East Africa with its new found fiber.

So with most African countries now boasting of fiber in the backbone and fiber available on all the African coasts, why are prices still high? Why do countries like South Africa and Namibia with world class intra-country fiber networks and good external connectivity (at least for South Africa) still have some of the highest connectivity costs in Africa? Why has all the fanfare and promises of low connectivity costs in East Africa not materialized with two fiber cables already operational and a third on the way?