Virtual Peering Series – Africa#5: Impact of Submarine Cable Cuts in Africa

1 December 2020
13:00 – 15:00 UTC

The Internet is down! (Some of it)

The Internet is a complicated, glorious collection of moving parts. We pay a lot of attention to topics such as peering, content, and connecting end users, but often overlook the many other building blocks across the globe that make the Internet work.

In this session, we highlighted the integral role of sub-sea cables, and the effects of their disruption. Given that the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has dominated news and discussion during 2020, it is easy to forget that there have been multiple cable disruptions during the first quarter of 2020, and the devastating ripple effect these had on connectivity across Africa.

Our panel both highlighted the process of submarine cable recovery and repair, then discussed the “behind the scenes” activities required to ensure connectivity.

The first 1.5hrs was dedicated to the theme of the day followed by a 30-minute interactive social event for participants on “Gather Town” online platform. The social event is designed to promote networking, collaboration, and partnership.

Moderators

Andrew Owens

Technical Lead for Interconnection & Peering,
Teraco Data Environments

Matthew Chigwende head shot

Mathew Chigwende

Group Head of Network Engineering,
Liquid Telecom

Speakers

Clementino Fernando
Clementino Fernando

Telecommunication Engineer,
Angola Cables

Patrick Christian headshot
Patrick Christian

Principal Analyst,
TeleGeography

Mark Tinka

Head of Engineering,
SEACOM

Ben Roberts

Group Chief Technology and Innovation Officer,
Liquid Telecom

Christian Kaufmann

Senior Director Network Architecture,
Akamai Technologies

Mohamad Ibrahim,

United S.A.

Virtual Peering Series – Africa Organizers

Virtual Peering Series – Africa Sponsors

Series Sponsors

Simultaneous Interpretation Services Sponsor

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