Africonnect Zambia has launched a direct fiber link to South Africa in a bid to enhance Internet services and lower the high cost of connectivity.The company is also commissioning a second international fiber route through the east African region to provide a more flexible Internet link and to ease communication services.Africa's subscriber base for mobile communications is still growing, but the growth curve has begun to flatten in more mature markets, forcing operators to compete more aggressively with data services even in rural areas.Africonnect Zambia, owned by South Africa's largest mobile operator and data transmission infrastructure firm Vodacom Business Africa, is expected to provide faster Internet service to Zambia and East Africa. The move is expected to heighten competition in Internet services and bring down the high cost of connectivity in the region. Costs remain high even though there are a number of undersea optic fiber cables providing broadband service to the region.Africonnect Zambia commercial director Ian Ferrao said the company has commissioned a 155M bps (bits per second) capacity direct fiber link to South Africa in an effort to improve services."Apart from experiencing faster Internet browsing, customers will also enjoy faster video conferencing and Internet banking," Ferrao said at Sunday's launch of the fiber link.Africonnect's expansion strengthens Vodacom's push for dominance of Africa's Internet and mobile markets.Large operators including MTN, Bharti Airtel, Orange and Safaricom are competing for a share of Africa's data market, following improvements in the communications infrastructure in the region. As a result, mobile operators are moving to upgrade their networks to 3G while others are upgrading to 4G networks. The data market has up to now not had the same growth as the voice market. However, the data market has become competitive as mobile operators roll out Internet services. The addition of social networks and e-mail services through mobile phones is said to have fuelled the demand for improved data services and is forcing costs as more international operators enter the market.Mobile data, driven by mobile e-mails and broadband services, is anticipated to generate US$2.2 billion in revenue in the region by 2014, boosted by a number of undersea and land cable projects that are providing extra capacity for ISPs and operators. Mobile data and broadband technologies are increasingly being used by operators as a substitute for poor or nonexistent fixed-line infrastructure in the region.Vodafone U.K. owns a 65 percent controlling stake in Vodacom Business Africa. In 2009, Vodafone paid more than $2 billion to increase its stake in Vodacom Group to consolidate its expansion plans in the African mobile and data markets, which has become a battleground for international companies.