WEBVTT - Why Does The Internet Keep Going Down in Africa? 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:09.080 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:12.119 Could you live without the Internet? 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.919 I would say no, a very big, big, big norm. 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.479 Well, when you don't have internet, you could actually fall 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:21.400 into depression. 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:29.200 We can survive without it. Back to life whenever did 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:34.560 the same again, difficult. 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.440 To imagine a life without it. And yet this year, 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:41.960 several African countries have been affected by Internet outages, leaving 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:46.320 people without access to the web, messaging services, or social 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:51.879 media for hours and sometimes even days on end. The 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.000 Internet has become such an important part of our life 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.960 that these cuts not only affect the way we communicate, 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:05.880 but also the economy of many of our countries. I'm 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:10.080 Jennifer Zabasaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.000 you one story each week from the continent driving the 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:18.399 future of global growth, but the context only Bloomberg can provide. 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:22.360 This week on the podcast, Bloomberg reporters Rama and Nyang 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.480 in Nairobi and Loney, Prinzlou and Johannesburg are joining me 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.960 to discuss why Africa from west to east has been 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:34.720 hit by these recurrent cuts. Later in the program, you'll 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.959 hear from Loney about the solutions to improve internet access 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.040 on the continent, but first let's head to Kenya and 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.400 get a better understanding of the scale of the problem. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.720 So hi, Rama, thanks so much for joining us today 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.240 and given the topic, I am glad you were able 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.040 to connect. Has the connection been okay so far today? 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:55.920 So far so good. We're back up and running. 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:58.200 That's great. Let's cross our fingers. It sounds like things 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.960 are better. Rama, you're in Nairob. We talk us through 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.639 how these disruptions have affected your region. 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:08.760 So essentially what happened, in very basic terms, is that 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.360 the region as a whole, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, they're all 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:15.840 affected by internet cuts in the middle of May. And 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.000 essentially what had happened is that two of the cables 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.680 that bring a big chunk of the data traffic along 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.520 that region had been affected. There was a cable break 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.360 right off a small coastal town called Tinzuni of kaZulu 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:32.280 Natal and this one little cable break had ripple effects 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.880 thousands and thousands of kilometers away. In some instances, the 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.800 usmbssine Tanzania to actually stop operating for a couple of days. 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.000 Here in Kenya, you could instantly realize, oh wait, hang 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.360 on a minute, something is really not right here because 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.760 your browsing speed just went all the way down. How 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:49.760 you try to do your mobile banking services and you'd 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:51.160 be like, hang on, why am I watching this in 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:53.239 three sixty P or two forty P rather than the 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:55.480 HD or the four K that I'm used to. But 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.280 thankfully now a couple of weeks later, the cable break 0:02:58.280 --> 0:02:58.919 has been fixed. 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.240 We have to put this into perspective too for people. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.160 You said, the cable break happened in Quasi lu Natal, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.760 which is here in South Africa where I am, and 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.680 as you mentioned, had an effect all the way where 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.200 you are. How significant was this damage? Have they figured 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:17.840 out what exactly happened and why it happened. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.760 Not in much detail, not yet. Usually it's two causes 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.280 that you tend to have when some of these cables 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:26.160 eventually do break. I'm going to take you back a 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.360 little bit towards around the middle of March. The cable 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:31.880 breaks that we had on the western side of the continent, 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.920 big chunk of that was essentially due to seytemic activity 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.320 on the ocean floor. So you've got you know, the 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.560 ocean floor goes around, rocks fall on these cables, break 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:42.400 them off. Then you've got some people out to fix them. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.440 In other instances, it's usually you know active map, right, 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.680 So troller comes in in a location where they're not 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:51.040 supposed to be. Either they drop the anchor incorrectly or 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:53.440 they essentially have these massive trolling nets to come in 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.880 and they cause damage. If you look at the Red Sea, 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.440 there's at least ten different cables that are running in there, 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:01.640 and you've got a lot of maritime traffic moving up 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.240 and now now combine that with what's happening with the 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.480 who the's attacks on vessels in that area, and he 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.920 just complicates a mass even further. So usually it's one 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.440 of those two things. A man acts of God acts. 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:17.039 Of God, which you know, when we're talking about solutions, 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.800 is a bit hard to prevent the next time, right, 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:22.719 I mean, what are some of the repairs that have 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.440 gone into these undersea cables right now? 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:27.919 So they sent out a vessel, one of these fairly 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.360 specialized vessels up from the coast of South Africa. He's 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.039 thankfully the voiding that instance was relatively short. So they 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.200 go into that location figure out whether the break is 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:38.880 depending on the equipment that they have, or rather the 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.760 sort of damage that has been done than obviously they've 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.359 got a lay new cable and then connect that into 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:46.760 the original cable and repay it in the sections where 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.479 the break had taken place. In some instances, part of 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.120 the problem is that the number of vessels available to 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.400 actually do this sort of work is pretty limited. There's 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.080 a handful of them, most of them based in South Africa. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.400 So the journey to s you get from point A, 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:03.280 you know, you get a vessel out of South Africa. Say, 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.040 for example, it does move up to the eastern coastline 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.440 around Mombasa, or it has to go all away west 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.200 into around Abijean. That's a voyage that will take some time. 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.960 Get there, do the survey, figure out where the cable 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:16.839 break is, what sort of repairs and needed do we 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.560 need extra cabling? So in some cases it can take 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.559 weeks and millions of dollars just to fix a cable break. 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:25.760 I wonder how you think this sort of speaks to 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:30.440 the vulnerabilities of internet access across the continent, because we 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:34.040 talk so much about how expanding internet access is important 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.440 for development, but clearly there are some vulnerabilities that need 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:38.919 to be addressed. 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:42.440 Yeah they are, and you know, to put this into context, 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:45.600 at least Kenya was somewhat fortunate in the sense that 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:47.320 at least in this part of the world, we've got 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.400 at least six different fib op to cables that are 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.520 terminating in the country, so we don't have the same 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.680 sort of concentration risk that some other economies would have, 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.640 which unfortunately is what happened back in Mane. For some 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.760 countries out in West Africa that have only one cable 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.160 connecting them to the wider Internet, is an argument to 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:11.560 be made for expanding investments in having mophi bop to 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.360 cables coming into the continent. Arguably yes, and we are 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:18.520 seeing some entities already doing that, But by and large, 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:20.799 it also comes back down to whether or not governments 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.000 actually see this as a tool that they need to 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.400 invest in as a public utility, or if that's something 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.240 that they contentually slet the private sector take the lead on. 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.760 Thanks so much, Rama, After the break, Lonely, Prinzlu and 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:43.840 Johannesburg will be joining us to discuss the economic impact 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:48.200 of these Internet disruptions and the solutions possible for the future. 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.760 Welcome back. Before the break, Rama and Young was explaining 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:57.560 what happened in East Africa, but there are other regions 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.760 on the continent that have also been affected by similar 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.400 internet cuts. Lonely Princely is with us, Lonely, thanks so 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.960 much for joining us. So how do you explain this. 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:12.040 There's very limited cables coming to the continent. In our 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:16.440 sort of context in Africa, we had three four cables 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:20.360 in March break cutting off most of the waste Africa 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:25.040 and it's quite difficult to then reroot it because there 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.520 aren't many cables to reroot this. So the disruption is 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.160 quite significant, but it still took us to almost n 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.120 May so a few weeks ago for those cables to 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:35.880 be repaired. 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:42.440 Of course, there was my internet clients calling assess their 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:44.120 information on their investment. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.040 So it affects your credibility. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:55.000 Bunking is technology driven and technology is based mostly on 0:07:55.680 --> 0:08:02.440 the availability of the internet they get. So Internet outage 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.480 means that there is very little the bands can't do. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:14.080 So one, you don't have access to your clients that impertinent. 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.239 On poond right, so you lose lots of money, lots 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.240 of money, especially when it's happening for. 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:21.120 Like twenty to forty eight hours. 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.720 It becomes so frustrated. You can loose one. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.720 Hundreds and millions of said this all dollars. 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:33.200 Yeah, and onnly we just heard there from business owners 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:37.920 in Ghana specifically. Are we able to quantify the impact 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:43.079 that these disruptions are having on businesses and maybe the economy? 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.680 Sure? So the instruments is that the internet industry to Africa, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.320 it's about one hundred and fifty two and twenty billion 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:56.880 dollars to the overall GDP every year. So when the 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:02.600 internet cuts daily, you are millions of dollars sort of 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.720 being cut out of that GDP number. There's an old 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:11.160 estimate that SAIDs with the banking sector, each hour you 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.480 lose about two million dollars if the internet is cut, 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.679 So that's each hour, and it's quite an old estimate, 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.360 so you can see that sort of racks up. The 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.400 overall impact on the economy is quite significant. And it 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.440 also takes longer to get the undersea cables repaired compared 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.800 to other regions because it is quite secluded and there's 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.280 not a lot of ships servicing the continent. 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:39.280 And loni in Europe or America and other developed parts 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.520 of the world, we don't hear about internet cuts of 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.280 this scale, maybe for a few minutes, but even that 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.840 is pretty seldom heard. What's the difference here and why 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.720 are African countries so vulnerable when it comes to access 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:54.520 to the internet. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.280 When it comes to undersea cables, there's about five hundred 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:03.000 seventy four so active under sea cables and only nine 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:06.120 of those are active in Africa to try and connect 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.560 Africa with data to Europe, data to Asia, data to 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.400 the years. So you can just imagine every cut that 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.760 we have is very significant in terms of the problem 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:22.080 that arises. It's just really the limited amount of infrastructure 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:26.079 that we have that's connecting Africa, which is the largest continent, 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.640 the fastest growing continent in the world, but we still 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.360 have the most limited infrastructure when it comes to the Internet, 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:34.640 and we're the least connected. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.719 So then lonely, what's the long term solution here? Are 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.520 we going to continue to see more private investment or 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.040 will we potentially see more government stepping in and putting 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:48.959 some of the public finances towards improving the infrastructure. 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.760 So you have your big empty ends, you have CCOM 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:57.560 that's also an African company investing in these cables, Talcom, 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.960 but you are competing with the rest of the world 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.640 when it comes to a Google or whoever, even content 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.080 providers that or social media providers like a Facebook wanting 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.480 to bring the cables to Africa. Mostly we have lower 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.679 income users or customers, and we have fewer companies on 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:21.200 the continent, so the economics don't always make sense for 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.200 them to come here, but they still do come. The 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:29.960 reason for that mainly is because of sort of geopolitical reasons. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:34.520 Wanting to have influence in the fastest growing sort of population, 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.920 as we said, in the world, and you know in 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.920 time you need that footprint, whether it's from the US 0:11:41.120 --> 0:11:45.400 or Asia. We saw Google most recently a week or 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.640 two ago and they said they are laying another cable 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:56.960 to connect Africa to Australia. Governments really do need to 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.640 sort of push for this as well. We've seen a 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.959 reason which was interesting for me Kenyan government. 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.640 For the first time in more than sixteen years, and 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.319 African leader is attending the White House for a state visit. 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.080 The cherry on top of the cake is President William 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.880 Ruter's visit to the White House, and from his joint 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.480 press conference with President Joe Biden, you could get a 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.480 sense that the US has committed to partnering and working 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:27.000 with Kenya, particularly in expanding its digital ecosystem. President William 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.319 Rutter raiter rated. 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.760 That commitment, saying that the country will expanding their investment 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.360 in things like digital technology to expand access to all 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:39.280 kenyons and tap into that digital economy. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.400 There was also a big promise of a one gigawe 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.640 data center, which is you know, almost unfancible for the region. 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.880 So governments do need to be active and also invest 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.679 from the east side, but just be active to you know, 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.440 approach these sort of more tack giants in the US 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.480 in Asia and see what sort of relationships can be 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.720 built and what can be sort of agreed upon to 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.319 try and connect our continent. The toaster. 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.760 Thanks so much to Rama and Loni for joining us 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.800 today on the podcast, as they were mentioning we have 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:21.800 seen internet penetration across the continent improve dramatically over the 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.080 past few years, but there is still much more investment 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:30.200 that needs to come in order to expand the connectivity 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:35.880 and to ensure that these disruptions don't completely set back 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.600 economies and businesses as they have done in some parts 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:43.040 of the continent. So still slightly a ways to go there. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.560 This program was produced by Leone Uadrago with the help 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:54.520 of tiwa Adebayo, Moses mozart Zaou and Echo Donto. The 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:58.800 Next Africa podcast is available every week wherever you usually 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.400 get your podcast. I'm Jennifer's Abasaga. Thank you so much, 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:03.880 as always for listening.