(FORTUNE Magazine) – Barely one in 5,000 Africans has access to the Internet, often through services such as the one advertised at left, in Kampala, Uganda. But a project is under way to encircle the continent with 32,000 kilometers of submarine fiber-optic cable that will deliver 80 gigs per second, some of the world's fastest broadband. Organized by Africa ONE of New York and using Lucent and Bell Labs technologies, the $1.6 billion effort will use wireless microwave and cable to bring signals ashore. Submarines run by Global Crossing will begin laying the fiber in early 2001; the ring is to be complete by 2002. "Africa will literally skip years of the process that other countries went through," says Patricia Bagnell, president of Africa ONE. "It's going to be amazing for growth." And a major step toward closing the so-called digital divide.

--C.T.