[sparknlaunch12]

For those living in large US and European cities we take our internet speed for granted. I am assuming that it's not google to blame but rather local infrastructure?

[rmc]

Depends what you mean by "local infrastructure". Up until recently east Africa dint have a fiber link to the rest of the internet, it was all satilite. Forget last miles, this is the last 1000 miles.

[deathwarmedover]

For those interested in the current and planned undersea cable infrastructure, there's a good SVG diagram on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cable_map18.svg

[rowanseymour]

That's out of date. Try http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables/ which has cables planned up to 2014