Research Article
Africa’s Online Access: What Data Is Getting Accessed and Where It Is Hosted?
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-34863-2_5, author={Babacar Mbaye and Assane Gueye and Desire Banse and Alassane Diop}, title={Africa’s Online Access: What Data Is Getting Accessed and Where It Is Hosted?}, proceedings={Innovations and Interdisciplinary Solutions for Underserved Areas. Third EAI International Conference, InterSol 2019, Cairo, Egypt, February 14--15, 2019, Proceedings}, proceedings_a={INTERSOL}, year={2019}, month={11}, keywords={Boomerang routing Africa web access content Data content Website hosting}, doi={10.1007/978-3-030-34863-2_5} }- Babacar Mbaye
Assane Gueye
Desire Banse
Alassane Diop
Year: 2019
Africa’s Online Access: What Data Is Getting Accessed and Where It Is Hosted?
INTERSOL
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-34863-2_5
Abstract
Recent studies have shown that most of the web traffic going from one African country to another has to transit through ISP’s in other continents before coming back to Africa. This phenomenon is known as boomerang routing and proposals are being made on how to correct it. However, there is a more fundamental question that needs to be addressed: what web content is of interest to Africans and where is it hosted? Indeed, if most of the data needed by Africans is within the continent and yet boomerang is still prevalent, then correcting it is of paramount importance. If, on the other hand, most the data accessed by Africans is hosted outside the continent, then data repatriation might be more beneficial than boomerang correction.