ntial consumers. Although foreign investors own many of the largest phone companies, the largest mobile provider in Africa, MTN Group, Ltd., is headquartered in South Africa. It pro- vides service in 21 African and Middle Eastern countries including Nigeria, Botswana, and Uganda. The two other large mobile providers in Africa are Bharti of India and Sub-Saharan Africa Vodacom, which is owned by the UK's Vodafone. French carrier France Telecom also has a large presence in Africa through its mobile subsidiary Orange. Despite Africa's problems, many countries in Africa have a slowly growing mid- dle-class population. Moreover, the area is rich in agricultural products such as coffee and tea. It is also flush with minerals and natural resources including oil and gold. Afri- can countries are also helped by direct foreign investments, aid efforts by governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and remittances sent by Africans who have emigrated to countries such as the United States, Europe, and even other coun- tries within Africa. Commerce has been aided by installation of new undersea cables in East, West, and Southern Africa that have enabled lower-cost Internet access. These undersea cables extend fiber-optic connections to Points of Presence (PoPs) in adjacent coun- tries, benefitting each of these regions as well as countries directly connected to the undersea cables. Previously, business and commercial organizations paid thousands of dollars monthly for broadband Internet access. This is because broadband links had to be connected all the way back to Egypt or South Africa to reach the Internet and remote offices in other continents. The high costs and lack of facilities hampered day- to-day operations for many organizations. Kenya Kenya is considered the financial and transportation hub of East Africa. Its banks pro- vide services for other countries in the region. While its economy was growing before 2007, it stagnated after post-election violence in 2007 that erupted due to accusa- tions of fraud r