  The advent of international wideband communication by optical fibre has
produced a revolution in communications and the use of the internet. Many
African countries are now connected to undersea fibre linking them to other
African countries and to other continents. Previously international
communication was by microwave links through geostationary satellites. These
are becoming redundant in some countries as optical fibre takes over, as this
provides 1000 times the bandwidth of the satellite links.
  In the 1970's and 1980's some two dozen large (30 m diameter class) antennas
were built in various African countries to provide the satellite links. Twenty
six are currently known in 19 countries. As these antennas become redundant,
the possibility exists to convert them for radio astronomy at a cost of roughly
one tenth that of a new antenna of similar size.
  HartRAO, SKA Africa and the South African Department of Science and
Technology (DST) have started exploring this possibility with some of the
African countries.
