African cell phone penetration rates are at an impressive 37 percent, according to a recent study by Ernst & Young. Impressive because a year and a half ago, at the beginning of 2008, the penetration rate was only 28 percent. That’s a huge increase, and it’s only going to continue — and all these cell phones are going to need some serious data connections. PC ownership is very rare on the continent, but cell phone ownership is booming, with a 49.3 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) every year since 2002. By comparison, Brazil and Asia have reported 27.5 percent CAGR over the same time period. Ernst & Young expects African cell phone market penetration to reach 60 percent by 2012.

As demand skyrockets, data providers are spending lots of money to install new pipes. SEACOM, a 17,000 km undersea cable linking the southern and eastern regions of Africa to India and Europe with 1.28 Tbps of bandwidth, went live last month. The $650 million project brings a huge increase in connection speed and reliability to the continent, and will serve up data to the millions of Africans buying new phones over the next few years.

And launching today is a new overland cable connecting India and China. The cable, going through the “inhospitable terrain of the Nathula pass,” provides connectivity with much less risk of problems due to natural disasters. Southeast Asia is home to a number of different natural disasters, including earthquakes and typhoons, and undersea cables can be vulnerable to breakage. One thing is certain: Everyone needs fast Internet connections, and the developing world is no different. In the U.S., we’re focusing on the last mile and getting higher-speed Internet to our more rural areas. However, we don’t really have to worry about getting fast data access on a continental scale. Something to reflect on next time you have a dropped call or two.

(Photograph of CS Tyco Reliant, submarine cable laying ship courtesy Tyco Telecom.)

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My Early Black Friday Deal Arrived — Panasonic HDC-SD10 jkOnTheRun – by Kevin C. Tofel "; 10 Things to Be Thankful For in Greentech Earth2Tech – by Josie Garthwaite "; NewTeeVee Re-Run: Paul McCartney Cooks Mashed Potatoes NewTeeVee – by Chris Albrecht "; Living by the Numbers: What Happens When You Quantify Everything? WebWorkerDaily – by Celine Roque ";

Posted by Jordan Golson on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  0 Comments
Tags: africa, india, SEACOm

After a short break that involved a whirlwind trip to New Delhi to see my parents and keynote at WordCamp Delhi, I am back in San Francisco and will be back on the job later tomorrow, or whenever I can kick the jet lag. Regardless, it was a fun trip and it was good to see my family. You can read my essay about Delhi and how it is changing. It is running on my personal blog and has some stunning photos snapped by Matt Mullenweg.

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My Early Black Friday Deal Arrived — Panasonic HDC-SD10 jkOnTheRun – by Kevin C. Tofel "; 10 Things to Be Thankful For in Greentech Earth2Tech – by Josie Garthwaite "; NewTeeVee Re-Run: Paul McCartney Cooks Mashed Potatoes NewTeeVee – by Chris Albrecht "; Living by the Numbers: What Happens When You Quantify Everything? WebWorkerDaily – by Celine Roque ";

Posted by Om Malik on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  3 Comments
Tags: india, India 2, India Trip 2009

Another terrorist attack in India, this time in India’s financial & entertainment capital, Mumbai (Bombay.) I have been following this for a while on Twitter, where people from the city are reporting whatever updates they can get. It is a depressing start to a Thanksgiving weekend here in the U.S. You can follow the news here on Twitter, or watch some of the live reports on NDTV and CNN. There are also photos on Flickr.

I am just shocked at the sheer magnitude of the attack, which has left more than 75 dead and 200 injured, along with news of people being taken hostage. The ghastly acts saw terrorists attacking various locations, including busy train station, hotels and hospitals. The shootouts saw some senior cops killed in the line of duty, and the Army has been called in. The shock is so extreme that I am incapable of anger.

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My Early Black Friday Deal Arrived — Panasonic HDC-SD10 jkOnTheRun – by Kevin C. Tofel "; 10 Things to Be Thankful For in Greentech Earth2Tech – by Josie Garthwaite "; NewTeeVee Re-Run: Paul McCartney Cooks Mashed Potatoes NewTeeVee – by Chris Albrecht "; Living by the Numbers: What Happens When You Quantify Everything? WebWorkerDaily – by Celine Roque ";

Posted by Om Malik on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  108 Comments
Tags: india, Mumbai, Mumbai Terror Attacks

Ubisoft said this week that it’s expanding into India. The French multinational, one of the top game publishers (it counts the hits Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia among its large, diverse library), is purchasing a game development studio in Pune (near Mumbai) with stated plans to build it up into a staff of 200 by next year — and more than twice that in the coming years.

Given India’s burgeoning middle class and ever-expanding pool of skilled tech workers, the move was understandable. Perhaps recognizing that fact, Electronic Arts and Microsoft joined with several Indian firms to form the Indian Games Industry and Trade Association back in 2006; it’s no surprise other major Western publishers are following suit.

What kind of games will Ubisoft develop in India? Well, the studio Ubisoft acquired was a division of Gameloft, which specializes in games for handheld consoles and mobiles, recently unveiled plans to port their titles to the Wii, and expects to release 15 games for the iPhone by the end of 2008. Assuming Ubisoft retains that focus when it takes over from Gameloft (and there’s no reason to doubt that), I’d expect to see more of the same on a vastly increased output level. Only made in India.

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My Early Black Friday Deal Arrived — Panasonic HDC-SD10 jkOnTheRun – by Kevin C. Tofel "; 10 Things to Be Thankful For in Greentech Earth2Tech – by Josie Garthwaite "; NewTeeVee Re-Run: Paul McCartney Cooks Mashed Potatoes NewTeeVee – by Chris Albrecht "; Living by the Numbers: What Happens When You Quantify Everything? WebWorkerDaily – by Celine Roque ";

Posted by Wagner James Au on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  0 Comments
Tags: ersts, india, ubisoft

Namaste, Found|READers! It has been several days since you’ve seen a new post on the site, and some of you have sent notes asking why. I’ve been been on a tour of India this last week, visiting with startup founders, investors and large business throughout the country. It was a whirlwind trip, 5 cities in as many days, which left little time to do much of anything else, including post, despite my best intentions.

I did meet some terrific people and companies, however — in New Delhi my dinner host turned out to be an F|R subscriber! — and you’ll be hearing more about many of them over the next few days. But before I go back to nursing my jet lag, let me leave you with this Thought of The Day, from a rather unexpected source.

One city I visited was Kolkata (previously called Calcutta), to see an outpost of IT-outsourcing specialist, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of India’s top 10 publicly traded companies, and an operating unit of the famous Tata Group. On our way to TCS, we made a stop in town, at the mission of the late Mother Teresa.

“Mother,” as the nuns still refer to her, died in 1997, but her writings and missives are displayed throughout the public areas of the place. Some of them strike very universal, non-religious themes. This is a woman who, by her own choosing, took on big, largely non-abating challenges (in her case, poverty) in an ambitious effort to change the world as she saw it. She even founded a new order to do it (the Catholic Church thought she was nuts and forced her to venture out on her own).

No surprise then, that Mother Teresa’s writings reveal an individual who was perpetually tired, often discouraged, and who felt very much alone. (Sound familiar?) Yet she persevered. And controversial as she has become since her death, I found these words, on her own sense of failure and how she overcame it, to be comforting:

Within me everything is cold. It is only that blind faith that carries me through. [This] smile is a big cloak which covers a multitude of pains in this darkness. [But] do not allow yourself to be disheartened by any failure, as long as you have done your best. Later, addressing her 4,500 “employees” in the Missionaries of Charity she concluded: What I can do, you cannot. What you can do, I cannot. But together we can do something beautiful…

Mother Teresa must’ve been a great leader in her own way — her 57-year-old operation now spans 133 countries. And I think she could’ve been writing of just about any entrepreneur’s state of mind with the words above, and so here’s your…

Thought of The Day: Even Mother Teresa, a soon-to-be-saint, felt discouraged by the challenges of breaking the mold. Heck! So don’t beat yourself up if you have a bad day, founders. You can’t do this alone. When it gets “dark,” enlist help and carry on.

Now off I go to nap. I hope everyone has been well, and busy.

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My Early Black Friday Deal Arrived — Panasonic HDC-SD10 jkOnTheRun – by Kevin C. Tofel "; 10 Things to Be Thankful For in Greentech Earth2Tech – by Josie Garthwaite "; NewTeeVee Re-Run: Paul McCartney Cooks Mashed Potatoes NewTeeVee – by Chris Albrecht "; Living by the Numbers: What Happens When You Quantify Everything? WebWorkerDaily – by Celine Roque ";

Posted by Carleen Hawn on GigaOM  |  Permalink  |  0 Comments
Tags: india, Kolkata, Leadership, missionaries, Mother Theresa, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Group, TCS