Business Daily (Nairobi)
Okuttah Mark
28 October 2007
Kenya's digital villages will get Internet connection from Ericsson, the world's leading telecommunications supplier.
Ericsson said, it had partnered with The Earth Institute at Columbia University to provide connectivity to the Millennium Villages project.
Digital villages are communication centres equipped with computers, fax, scanners and Internet connection. In Kenya the Government intends to build such villages in each district so that when it rolls out e-government services people can use the centres to access information easily.
The partnership is designed to bring mobile communication and the Internet to approximately 400,000 people in Kenya among other nine African countries where the project is working.
Ericsson will tap into relationships with African operators, including MTN and Zain (formerly known as MTC) and its subsidiary Celtel, to develop a comprehensive end-to-end telecommunication strategy in the villages and to drive mobile phone connectivity and coverage build-out to selected areas.
Alongside digital villages in Kenya, other millennium villages expected to benefit from the partnership include Bonasso in Ghana; Mwandama in Malawi; Potou in Senegal; Mbola in Tanzania; Ruhiira in Uganda; Koraro in Ethiopia; Tiby in Mali; Ikaram and Pampaida in Nigeria; and Mayange in Rwanda.
As part of the partnership, Ericsson President and CEO, Carl-Henric Svanberg, is today expected to inaugurate the first millennium village in Rwanda on the sidelines of the Connect Africa ITU summit in Kigali, Rwanda which kicks off today.
In the first phase of the partnership, Ericsson and Sony Ericsson will supply a number of mobile and fixed wireless phones to the communities in an effort to bring the benefits of connectivity to areas such as agriculture, health, education and infrastructure.
Ericsson and Sony Ericsson have also co-developed a solar village charger for mobile phones that will be provided to each village.
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