The hot topic at this week's Africa Peering and Interconnection Forum is increasing the cross-links between African nations, who often have to route traffic through interchanges in distant nations (or on other continents!) in order to reach nearby networks.
When I was working in Uganda, I was always frustrated and amazed by the dreadful interconnectivity with nearby nations — I remember tracerouting one connection to a server in nearby Kenya as running through a satellite link to the UK, thence to another satellite link to France, and then practically next door to Nairobi.
Internet operators explore improving African interconnections [Rebecca Wanjiku/IDG]
(via /.)
(Image: Réseau, Ju, CC-BY)