A recent internet disruption in Algeria was a sobering reminder of the challenges the country’s internet services sector faces. It also underlines the importance of the government’s continuing efforts to develop a comprehensive internet policy framework, while highlighting the potential for WiMAX licensing and the development of asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL). Algérie Télécom (AT), the public telecommunications company, attributed the limited nationwide connectivity to a rupture in one of the two submarine fiber-optic cables that provide Algeria with its broadband data network. The ruptured cable, named the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4, is maintained by France Télécom Marine, and extends from Marseille to Singapore with a stopover in Annaba, east of Algiers. All of the data activity was transferred to an already saturated cable system, ALPAL-2, which connects the island of Majorca to El Djemila, near the capital. The result was a slow to non-existent connection for Algeria’s
