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 ====== Terrestrial Fibre Optic Infrastructure ======
+The spread of undersea fibre optic cables around the world since the early 2000s, followed closely by the rapid spread of terrestrial fibre optic infrastructure, is nothing short of a revolution. Fibre infrastructure has spread far faster than anyone would have imagined possible. In Africa, there are perhaps only two or three countries that do not now have a national fibre optic backbone. Many countries have several. Fibre optic networks are the deep water ports of the Internet; they enable orders of magnitude greater broadband capacity than any other kind of access technology and at very low latency. For terrestrial networks in particular, the capacity of this infrastructure is so great that it is effectively a non-rival resource: access for one service provider does not diminish opportunity for other providers.
+Yet operators are often reluctant to share information about their fibre networks. This reluctance betrays an apprehension that it may somehow compromise their competitive edge, but in many cases, operators have simply not considered the issue from a strategic perspective. While the majority of operators decline to publish detailed information about their fibre networks, their response stands in stark contrast to companies like Dark Fibre Africa in South Africa, and regional operator, Liquid Telecom, who readily publish maps of their fibre networks. Dark Fibre Africa stands out in the detail and ease-of-use of their maps.
+Taking this information out of the narrow group of stakeholders within which it resides and opening it up to public input and discussion as open data can have multiple benefits. For example, a small rural municipality might determine from a public fibre map that it is in their interest to invest in 50 kilometres of fibre network to connect to a nearby network. A province or state might determine that their region is suffering due to a lack of fibre infrastructure investment. A school or a hospital could fund-raise for better access if they can show that a fibre optic cable is within a reasonable distance. From a national strategic perspective, fibre optic infrastructure is now comparable in terms of importance with other basic infrastructure like roads, railways, and bridges. The public needs to be aware of its existence in order to identify opportunities to connect to it and to identify gaps where more investment is needed. Making this data public can also be good for operators who can use the scope of their investment in fibre infrastructure to market their services.
 ==== What is the Open Fibre Data Standard? ====