3. Can Optic Cables Predict Economic Shifts?

From the Timbuktu Chronicles blog.

Om Malik at GigaOm writes:
According to TeleGeography, a research firm that tracks the global business, there are about 12 cables either in planning stages or under construction that will connect Africa to the rest of the planet. Those connections will have a theoretical capacity of over 13 Terabits per second, and construction is estimated to cost more than $3 billion...Building new cables is the equivalent of adding new roads, new shipping lanes or flights. The undersea fibers of today are what sea trading routes were in the past — an indicator of future economic activity and the subsequent boom...(continue reading)