Dorothy Nakaweesi
27 October 2004
Kampala — The high cost of telecommunication infrastructure is slowing down Africa's Internet connectivity, an expert has said.
Dr Lishan Adam, an Information Communication Technology expert on Africa, said the trend has been slowing down in the last four years.
"Internet connectivity was vibrant between 1995-2001 it is now slowing down. Those who wanted it have got it but the challenge remains to go to those who do not have it and need it most," Adam said at the regional ICT meeting at the Grand Imperial Hotel on October 25.
He, however, said the case is different for Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya because of the establishment of the East African Cable Network whose plans are underway. "The use of cables is the cheapest means to use although it is still a long term process," he said.
He said traditionally the network telecommunications companies were thinking in terms of telephones alone and did little or nothing about the Internet. It is now a big challenge especially when the infrastructure on the ground is designed for telephones.
He said most Internet infrastructure is located in urban areas thus posing the challenge of rolling it out to rural areas.
"The best way to solve this problem is to allow the private sector to regulate since they are the people with the money.
He said another cheap alternative that African countries could use to access Internet is to link up to the international gateways but this requires huge resources.
Many African countries are land locked and this has been a barrier to get connected to the submarine cable from Asia and Europe, which snake through the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
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