I am sitting in an internet cafe in the Gambia anxiously watching the upload status bar creep from 97% to 98%. It has taken more than two hours to get this far. I am uploading some photographs to send to my editor, but the connection is agonisingly sluggish and a deadline is looming. Suddenly, for the second time today, the dreaded message flashes up on my screen: upload failed. It was 98.7% complete. This is the kind of frustration experienced by many in west Africa who are using the internet for anything heavier on bandwidth than browsing simple text-based websites. Connectivity in the region suffers from high latency, high cost and narrow bandwidth. But all this is set to change in December when the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) broadband cable comes online. Read the full story at The Guardian.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.