Comment by thefz
2 years ago
> In July 2019 the Government of St Helena announced that it has issued a letter of intent to connect the island to Equiano. The 1,140Km branch to Saint Helena was completed in 2021 so this cable will provide the first fibre optic connectivity from St Helena to the outside world through both Europe and South Africa.
> Compared to the current satellite link the cable will bring almost incredible amounts of capacity. The Government of St Helena estimates that it will deliver several hundred gigabits per second - far more than the island’s population of around 4,400 people{16} could possibly use. The plan is therefore to turn the island into a communications hub
> [...]
> A route survey was conducted in August 2019 and at the end of the year the Government of St Helena announced that it had signed an agreement with Google™ to land the cable at St Helena, aiming to commence service in 2022.
> On 6th February 2020 Sure announced that it had no plans to upgrade domestic and small-business Internet connections to Fibre-Optic when the Equiano Cable arrives in 2022, meaning ordinary users would not see the full benefits of the new system.
Screw this ISP, man.
However it seems that they are now building an island wide fiber network owned by the government and not by an ISP, and will end the current monopoly as soon as this network is ready: https://openfalklands.com/st-helena-plans-for-an-island-wide...
Good for them. Imagine living in a natural paradise with high speed fiber at home.
Apparently Sure is based in Bahreïn ... quite a few kilometers from the island. So why would they care about anything other than money?
Looks like service was upgraded after all, though: https://www.sure.co.sh/assets/Banner-Links/PRESS-RELEASE-Con...