Network Break 285: 37,000 Kilometers Of Undersea Cable Coming To Africa; Cisco Announces ACI 5.0

Take a Network Break! A consortium of telecom operators and Facebook have announced plans to lay 37,000 kilometers of undersea fiber optic cable around Africa, Cisco rolls out version 5.0 of its ACI platform with new features for service providers, and Intel buys Rivet Networks for high-performance Wi-Fi. Google and Apple release software to public health authorities to track Covid-19 exposure, Juniper touts its Mist Wi-Fi as a contact tracer, and Chrome version 83 comes with DNS over HTTPS. The FCC doubts Starlink can meet broadband requirements to get federal funding for rural broadband, Gluware is now available in Azure, and AT&T gets spanked by a U.S. advertising association for misleading consumers about its 5G capabilities. Sponsor: Service Express Service Express is a leader in third-party data center maintenance. Lower your support costs, extend the life of your hardware and save up to 70% on server, storage and network maintenance! Visit serviceexpress.com/packetpushers to learn more, and find out how you can win a $50 Amazon gift card. Tech Bytes: Silver Peak Stay tuned after the news for a Tech Bytes conversation. Silver Peak is the sponsor, and they’ve sent customer SolarWinds to share how the company boosted VoIP performance, improved end user experience, and saved big money on its WAN costs by deploying SD-WAN. Show Links: Building 2Africa, a transformative subsea cable to better connect Africa – Facebook Meet the partners – 2Africacable.com Facebook is Building an Underwater Cable Around Africa to Bolster the Continent’s Internet Access – Grit Daily News Facebook 2Africa – Why Aren’t Telcos Doing This? – Packet Pushers Facebook, telcos plan subsea cable to connect Africa, Middle East and Europe – Reuters Faster Internet Coming to Africa With Facebook’s $1 Billion Cable – Bloomberg Telegeography Submarine Cable Map – Telegeography Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI) 5.0 for the Changing World – Cisco Systems ACI Release 5.0 New Features – Michael’s personal Blog Intel Acquires Rivet Networks, Boosting Intel’s Wi-Fi Offerings for PC Platforms – Intel Newsroom