African telecommunications leaders are calling on governments and regulators to adopt a Model Framework for Building Regional Internet Resilience, as the continent continues to face frequent and costly internet disruptions.
The African Telecommunications Union (ATU), the Internet Society (ISOC) and the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) have jointly endorsed the framework, which addresses Africa’s internet stability challenges across three interconnected areas: service provider networks, critical infrastructure such as power grids and submarine cables, and market conditions affecting affordability and demand.
Under the proposal, key players in a country’s internet ecosystem, including electricity utilities, mobile network operators, internet service providers, internet exchange points and domain registries, would be required to develop a resilience plan within one year of the framework’s adoption. These plans must be reviewed and updated annually, and align with the organisation’s continuity and recovery strategies.
The framework sets out how operators should integrate resilience features such as redundancy, resourcefulness and rapid recovery to strengthen overall robustness. It also calls for preparedness against major failures, citing the West Africa Cable System outage in March 2024 that left 13 countries without internet access for days.
ATU Secretary General John Omo said the framework could serve as a safeguard for essential services across the continent. “Connectivity remains Africa’s nervous system and when it stutters, schools, hospitals and markets stutter too. This framework is our insurance policy against digital darkness,” he said.
Arthur Carindal, AFRINIC’s head of stakeholder engagement, praised the joint effort, saying: “It is a great honour for AFRINIC to collaborate with ATU and ISOC in transformative initiative enabling all stakeholders to participate in developing Africa’s internet resilience model framework, which highlights key policy recommendations and best practices for strengthening internet infrastructure in Africa.”
The framework also emphasises the need for stronger coordination among stakeholders to ensure that Africa’s internet infrastructure can withstand shocks, recover quickly and maintain essential connectivity.
