In 2013, Sierra Leone granted six licenses to public Internet operators and started working on connecting the African coast with European cable (Africa Coast to Europe). The objective was to obtain affordable access to the international broadband network through the construction of a 17 000 km submarine fibre optic cable from France to South Africa (WTO, 2017a). In 2015, Sierra Leone adopted the Telecommunications Amendment Act 2015, which terminated a monopoly over the international telecommunications gateway (WTO, 2014-15). As part of the Telecommunications and Radio Communications Regulation Act No.