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International connectivity in Africa is moving from scarcity to overcapacity, with growing competition between large private providers. Nevertheless, extending terrestrial networks and bringing greater bandwidth to customers is an increasingly complex matter, and the disparities between and within countries are considerable. The mobile phone is expanding to the detriment of fixed telephony, and broadband Internet is still not widespread. Liberalization is patchy (26 out of 54 existing companies are government-owned) and prices remain too high relative to the standard of living. The democratization of mobile telephony has generated a largely informal "new economy" and the African model of access through telecenters seems to be collapsing.