[governance] Africa's Portal To The Internet

Sun Feb 10 09:58:26 EST 2008

Africa's Portal To The Internet 
by Nicole Ferraro, 
with Raymond Mcconville
LightReading.com

InformationWeek.com Feb. 2, 2008 
Art. Ref:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206100708

Print:
http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=206100708

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Source Ref.:
InternetEvolution.com
The Internet & the Developing World	
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698

Sidebar 1: Lessons From India
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698&page_number=9

Sidebar 2: The Internet, African Style
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698&page_number=10

Sidebar 3: Which Charities?
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698&page_number=11

Graph
http://img.lightreading.com/internetevolution/2008/01/143698/2416.jpg

--

Can cell phones and other inexpensive wireless devices close the digital divide
in the world's poorest countries?

  At first glance, the idea that the Internet could have a major impact in the
poorest parts of the developing world--Africa in particular--seems unlikely.
Few people in those poor, rural areas have access to PCs or even electricity,
for that matter. The Internet infrastructure is limited to major urban areas in
most countries, and broadband services are scarce and quite expensive where
they do exist.

However, the picture is changing fast. The key is to look at the rollout of
mobile telephone infrastructure, which is already widespread and growing
rapidly in developing countries.

"For the developing world, the Internet experience is going to be a wireless
experience," says Susan Schorr, the head of the International Telecommunication
Union's Regulatory and Market Environment Division. Sixty-one percent of the
world's 2.7 billion mobile phone users are in developing countries, compared
with 10% of the world's 1 billion Internet users, Schorr says.

Online communities and markets are emerging in Africa, which accounts for more
than half of the world's poorest countries, with people using low-cost cell
phones rather than PCs for connectivity. 

They're providing vital data and information to community-based workers,
connecting farmers with trading networks for their crops and commodities, and
more broadly, providing access to political and social information that's
changing people's lives.

ACCESSIBLE, AFFORDABLE

Africa has only 3.5% of the world's Internet users, according to Internet World
Stats. The picture varies across the continent, with South Africa and northern
African countries having the highest percentage of their populations online,
but the vast majority of Africans, especially those who live outside urban
areas, have little or no access (see chart, below). Even in cities, Internet
access can be quite slow; it's often dial-up, with internal country traffic as
well as traffic between African countries frequently routed through Europe or
other non-African countries.

The International Telecommunications Union's latest statistics pegged mobile
cellular use in Africa in 2006 at 7.2% of users worldwide, but cell phone use
on the continent has been growing at more than twice the rate of the rest of
the world. And the statistics don't tell the full story, since in countries
where accessing a phone previously meant traveling long distances to the
nearest landline, 

cell phones provide a distinct advantage. A 2005 survey by Vodafone found that
97% of 223 Tanzanians polled had access to mobile phones, while only 28% had
access to landlines.

Key to making cell phones the portal to the Internet is making them affordable.
India is the leader there, with a cell-phone-subscribing population of 226
million--about 19% of its total population--and as many as 7 million people a
month signing on as new subscribers, says Sridhar Pai, CEO of Tonse Telecom, an
Indian telecom advisory firm. As cell phone use has grown, costs have been
driven down to affordable levels for people with low incomes.

Carriers have unbundled services from equipment, letting them charge less for
service because they're not subsidizing handset costs. About 85% of all Indian
cell phone contacts are prepaid, making it easier for customers to pay for
service and providing more cash up front to operators. In addition, as the
handset market has gotten more competitive, LG, Motorola, Nokia, and other
companies have begun manufacturing them in India, putting downward pressure on
prices, Pai says.

In Africa, shared cell phone services are taking off. The Grameen Foundation
has brought the Village Phone model, originally developed in Bangladesh, to
Uganda and Rwanda. People wanting to become standalone mobile phone operators
can take out microloans, letting them buy a Village Phone kit that includes a
cell phone, a rooftop antenna that picks up cellular signals from 25 kilometers
away, and a car battery or solar panel for recharging. They set up shop in
their homes, selling phone calls to other villagers.

There are at least 13,000 of these businesses in Uganda, according to the BBC,
and their proprietors earn an average of $23 per month--a good living by
Ugandan standards.

Village Phone doesn't provide Internet access. Grameen and cellular service
provider MTN Uganda have launched a study to assess what additional services
operators might offer, including Internet access.

ALTERNATE ROUTES ONLINE

Without easy, cheap online access, economic development efforts have to find
alternative ways to get online information to and from people, often using the
much more ubiquitous and reliable cell phone network. 

For example, Kiva.org, a Web site that facilitates microlending to small
businesses by connecting potential lenders with borrowers, needed a way around
constant power failures in some countries. "Lots of times, we'll hear: 'Oh we
don't have electricity now,'" says Kiva public relations director Fiona Ramsey.
Kiva solved the problem by letting its partners update their Web entries from
camera phones. "Power goes out in East Africa all the time, but cell phones
never go down," Ramsey says. 
(For more on microlending and the Internet, see "Lending And Philanthropy In
The Internet Age".)

Telemedicine is a frequently cited example of how the Internet could transform
conditions in developing countries. But the lack of Internet access and other
issues are holding it back. The cost of conventional telemedicine technology is
beyond the means of governments that spend less than $10 per capita annually on
health care. Plus, the advice provided by remote experts via telemedicine
projects, critics say, is often impractical in Africa.

"Giving advice without a thorough understanding of local conditions and weak
health infrastructure can be dangerous," says Philippa Saunders, a consultant
specializing in health and pharmaceutical services in Africa. "African doctors
often have limited equipment and few supplies of health commodities such as
essential medicines."

In addition, rural medical workers may not be literate. "It's impractical to
supply Internet facilities to traditional birth attendants who can't read or
write," says Maria Musoke, an information specialist who worked on technology
trials in a Ugandan health project. Radios and walkie-talkies, on the other
hand, "worked wonders," she says.

However, some basic medical information dissemination projects are succeeding
using the cellular network. AED-Satellife Center for Health Information and
Technology since 2003 has distributed 600 PDAs to health workers in remote
areas of Uganda and has launched a second program in Mozambique. 

Clinicians use the PDAs to collect public health data. They then upload that
data and e-mails they need to send to a caching server at a rural health
facility. The caching server sends the data and messages over the cell network
to a server in Kampala, Uganda's capital, which routes them to the correct
recipients and sends back messages, data, and other information clinicians
need. 

The system is improving the accuracy and speed with which public health data is
collected, says Andrew Sideman, AED-Satellife's director of development. It
also has "sparked great interest in using the information dissemination aspect
of the system to support continuing medical education for clinicians who
practice great distances from the nearest medical school," Sideman says.

The cellular network is enabling business ventures, too. The DrumNet project is
encouraging Kenyan farmers to grow crops for export by providing loans and
marketing information. Sponsored by the International Development Research
Centre, a Canadian group that supports research into how science and technology
can help developing countries solve social, economic, and environmental
problems, and Pride Africa, which aims to create a sustainable financial and
information network in Africa, DrumNet's initial goal was to provide a
Web-based portal. 

That approach proved to be slow, unreliable, and expensive. A second phase is
under way, using a GSM-enabled system that will provide interactive links
between producers, exporters, extension workers, rural banks, and DrumNet
itself.

In another cellular-based project, Web site Tradenet .biz in Ghana, lets people
in several West African countries trade a variety of agricultural products.
Traders use SMS messaging to communicate.

CHANGE MECHANISM

The Internet also is emerging as a promising mechanism for social and political
change in developing countries by bypassing government control of the media,
providing people with alternative information sources, and letting them
communicate with the rest of the world about conditions in their countries. 

Video and blogs detailing the Myanmar government's harsh response to protests
last fall were a prime example of the impact Internet access can have.

More recently, information on unrest and violence following elections in Kenya
continued to be disseminated via the Internet even after the government imposed
a media blackout. Kenyans, unable to reach Internet cafes, were able to stay
connected with each other and the rest of the world using SMS messaging
available on the Mashada Web site, which caters to African online communities.

"Situations like this are where technology can really shine," says Erik
Hersman, writing on Mashada's blog forum. "The government can squash
traditional media, but not technology that it barely knows exists."

Cell phones and other inexpensive wireless devices are expected to be most of
Africa's lifeline to the Internet. PC access may also escalate as One Laptop
Per Child and similar efforts get off the ground.

It's early days for these efforts, which aim to boost education in developing
countries by the mass production of low-cost laptops. OLPC recently released a
$200 laptop to a mixed reception, largely because of software stability
problems. Other vendors are planning low-priced children's laptops. 

India's government has gone as far as rejecting an offer of millions of OLPC
appliances in favor of its own approach, which aims to deliver laptops costing
a mere $10 apiece. Researchers in Bangalore say they've already designed a
laptop that could be produced in small quantities for $47 each.

It's unclear how inexpensive laptops will affect online access in the poorest
areas of the world. But what is clear is that cell phones and other wireless
devices will continue to get more people connected to the Internet or at least
give them access to a wealth of information and communications capabilities
that previously were out of reach.

--

Links within Article:

Lending And Philanthropy In The Internet Age
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206100709

Kiwanja
http://www.kiwanja.net/

Africa's Top 10 Internet-Using Countries
http://i.cmpnet.com/informationweek/1171/171IE-chart.gif

Grassroots Business Initiative
http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/gbo.nsf/

*NOTE
The Source article has serveral Sidebar's, of which are incorpated in to the
main article.

Source Ref.:
InternetEvolution.com
The Internet & the Developing World	
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698

Sidebar 1: Lessons From India
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698&page_number=9

Sidebar 2: The Internet, African Style
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698&page_number=10

Sidebar 3: Which Charities?
http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=143698&page_number=11

Graph
http://img.lightreading.com/internetevolution/2008/01/143698/2416.jpg

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