This document analyzes latency patterns in Africa's internet through measurements from RIPE Atlas and Speedchecker probes. The key findings are:
- Africa has higher average in-country latencies than other regions, around 78ms.
- Countries cluster into Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western groups based on latency, though some exceptions exist like islands clustering with northern countries.
- Inter-cluster latencies exceed 200ms, with the highest delays between the Western and other clusters.
- Africa relies heavily on overseas transit providers, with over a third of routes first hopping outside Africa, primarily to Europe. This contributes to higher latencies.
- Future work aims to better understand the role of undersea