Wiring Africa
“The race is on to connect Africa to cheap broadband internet. Seacom hopes to do so by summer 2009. But first, its cable-laying ship must overcome sharks and pirates.
The distress call comes early in the morning. A siren sounds in the bridge, while a screen flashes the coordinates of the ship sending the alert. It could be anything—a fire, a sinking ship, simple human error, or the issue that’s feared most in these waters: pirate attack.
On the bridge of the Tyco Resolute, Captain Alejandro Fernandez is monitoring the situation closely. His vessel is docked in Mombasa, Kenya, taking on board fresh supplies and crew. In two days, he will sail north, into the world’s most dangerous waters, to complete the job his crew has been working on over the past several months: laying the very first submarine fibre-optic cable down the coast of East Africa.”