DAR ES SALAAM, Jan. 26 -- THINK about the last time you sent a photo on WhatsApp or watched a video on TikTok. It felt instant, right? That simple act is the result of a hidden revolution; a massive upgrade to the ‘roads that carry your data.

And the words we use for it, ‘upload and ‘download, have a sneaky little secret: They mean the opposite of what they used to. Lets take a journey.

The Old Way: The HighLatency Skyway In the beginning, there was the sky. Before ubiquitous mobile data, reliable long-distance and international digital communication for many relied on geostationary satellites.

Orbiting 35,786 kilometers above the equator, these technological marvels acted as mirrors in the sky, bouncing microwave sig...