Liberians will have access to high-speed internet by October 2012 following the country’s connection to a fibre-optic cable running along the coast of the West African state
According to AFP, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf confirmed the October deadline to an audience at the opening ceremony of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) terminal in Monrovia, which hosts the submarine fibre-optic cable system.
Sirleaf said that with the launch of the cable in the country, Liberians be granted access to information in the world, enabling them to easily disseminate information to the outside world, in what she described as “the advantage of democracy”.
“We are now set to begin enjoying this high technology that will be functional in October this year because we have to wait for other West African states to get connected,” said Sirleaf.
Liberia was unable to join a previous pan-African wide effort to introduce fibre-optic telecommunications in 1999, due to the country’s civil war, which ended in 2003.
More than 20 countries, including as Sierra Leone, Gambia, Guinea and Angola, will be connected to the cable, leading to the introduction of high-speed internet in markets that have previously suffered from sluggish connections.
