From IT Web Africa via Reuters

Internet access in east Africa is still relatively slow and costly but a Djibouti-based technology startup company has ambitions to help change that. Djibouti Data Center (DDC), set up by a group of local and international investors 18 months ago, is the first data centre and internet exchange in east Africa connected to eight fiber optic cables that are part of the main internet route from Europe to Asia.

The Internet route travels through the Mediterranean, Red Sea and into the Indian Ocean, passing by tiny Djibouti, which is sandwiched between Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia.
African Internet users have typically enjoyed little benefit from these cables passing along its coast because connectivity to them has been limited, something DDC aims to correct as it plans to expand from its home base into Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Somalia, which are all at varying stages of Internet development.

“The Djibouti market itself may be small, but the DDC serves as a unique gateway hub to the many millions of customers in these neighboring east Africa countries,” said Anthony Voscarides, chief executive of Djibouti Data Center.

The company launched services in March 2013 in partnership with Djibouti Telecom and will connect to at least three more cables on the Europe/Asia route next year.

“Africa has historically been challenged by high Internet costs,” Voscarides, an Australian former telecoms industry executive, said.

According to The Internet Society, 15.7% of Kenya’s average GDP per capita is required for broadband access, compared to 6.1% in South Africa and less than 2% in most of Europe.
In Ethiopia the figure rises to 60.4% while in Uganda it is 31% in Uganda and 7.4% in Sudan.

Read more at It Web Africa