Somalia gets first fiber optic link to the world

African fiber optic company Liquid Telecom has delivered a broadband Internet cable to Somalia's doorstep, the first terrestrial connection to the Horn of Africa country that because of conflict has had rely on expensive satellite links. Liquid Telecom has agreed a deal with one of Somalia's largest mobile operators, Hormuud, to connect it to its 17,000 km (10,500 mile) network of terrestrial cables that crosses 11 African countries. Liquid already provides Somalia with international Internet links via satellite, but will now deliver more capacity faster. "If there is a place that is not connected, that is the place that attracts us," Nic Rudnick, chief executive of Mauritius-based Liquid Telecom, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African telecoms conference in Cape Town.



via Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/somalia-gets-first-fiber-optic-world-153417373.html