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Africa - Offline And Waiting for the Web

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the can-i-borrow-a-cup-of-internet dept.

The nytfeed provides us with an article about the current state of internet connectivity on the African continent. Only 4 percent of Africa's population has regular access to the internet, with most of those people living in North African countries, or the country of South Africa. This might seem like a market ripe for development, but the article explains that there are numerous difficulties involved getting an infrastructure project off the ground. "Africa's only connection to the network of computers and fiber optic cables that are the Internet's backbone is a $600 million undersea cable running from Portugal down the west coast of Africa. Built in 2002, the cable was supposed to provide cheaper and faster Web access, but so far that has not happened. Prices remain high because the national telecommunications linked to the cable maintain a monopoly over access, squeezing out potential competitors. And plans for a fiber optic cable along the East African coast have stalled over similar access issues. Most countries in Eastern Africa, like Rwanda, depend on slower satellite technology for Internet service." The good news is that, of course, progress is being made. Just ... slowly.

4 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Doesn't matter by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    It doesn't matter. They are all going to die of AIDS anyway.

  2. Re:I think it is by sumdumass · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Yea, then maybe India can get their jobs outsourced to Africa. Could you imagine the language barrier there? Now you won't be able to understand the people on both ends of the call.

  3. Pearls for Pigs! by SageMusings · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Let Africa concentrate on clean water, stable government, and a controllable birth rate. Internet access is the least of their problems. Hell, look what happened when the Nigerians got it.

    --
    -- Posted from my parent's basement
  4. Re:Typical cost - for those who might not know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I also got educated in a way...that is...I realized that it is actually hotter in USA (Texas) than in some of these African countries that we think are way too hot. Temperatures never went above 86 degrees F, in the capital (Kampala)...compared to the 113 degrees in some parts of the US lately.
    Another flaw in your education is that you have been taught to use that bizarre Fahrenheit scale, rather than Celsius, which is what most of the world uses. Please look into the metric system and purge yourself of this old, annoying habit.