BBC英语口语:East Africa Broadband 东非宽带发展

Background: 在非洲东部和南部的互联网连接即将会得到明显的改善。新投资建设的海底光缆将把宽带服务带入非洲东南部地区，同时也将促进该地区的工业和经济发展。

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East Africa Broadband

It has been an ambitious project. Laying a 17,000 kilometre fibre optic cable under the sea linking Europe and Asia with East and Southern Africa. Seacom, a Mauritius-based company, is today officially launching the arrival of a fast broadband internet service in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa. It should be commercially available in a few weeks’ time.

Three other fibre optic cables are due to become operational soon including one which is backed by the Kenyan government. In theory the region could be on the brink of an internet revolution. But it all depends how well the service is rolled out across the region.

To the disappointment of many consumers, some internet providers are not planning to lower the cost of the internet but they will offer increased bandwidth.

Corporate businesses will benefit - they have been paying around three thousand dollars per month for a megabyte via a satellite link but will now pay about six hundred dollars thanks to the fibre optic cables.

Faster internet when it comes should improve business efficiency and countries like Kenya or Uganda could become popular places for telephone call centres.

What is not clear is whether this internet revolution will reach the villages many of which are struggling to access a reliable electricity supply.