The proposed Southern African Development Community (SADC) superhighway is aimed at enhancing competition in the economies of the region and drastically reducing the cost of telecommunications.
On completion the optical fibre highway will be particularly beneficial to the bloc’s landlocked countries - Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe - which bear the brunt of exorbitant rates.
The 16 countries that are members of the SADC are investing in the initiative, with South Africa set to play a prominent role in the implementation of the project through the state-owned entity Broadband Infraco.
“The ultimate outcome of this initiative is that, at least at an infrastructure level, we can ensure that the reach of optical fibre, which is what you need for backhauling high volumes of data, reaches South Africa, but also large parts of our neighbouring countries,” said Andrew Matseke, chief executive at Broadband Infraco.