...
and an earlier map below:
Beyond the Fibre Reach
In areas where fibre connections are not available (e.g. rural areas), the main contenders appear to be:
- wireless, e.g. microwave, cellphone towers, WiMax etc.),
- Low Earth Orbiting Satellites (LEOS) for example Google signed up with Liberty Global and HSBC in a bid to launch 16 LEOS satellites, to bring high-speed internet access to Africa by end 2010,
- and weather balloons, also see here for some dicsussion of the attractivenss of this technology.