Business Daily (Nairobi)
Beatrice Gachenge
17 June 2008
Kenyans will soon enjoy reduced charges to acquire new Internet domains under the .ke tag in an ambitious programme targeting over 20,000 primary and secondary schools.
The new charges will be unveiled in three weeks time, but the exact reduction will be known once discussions within the Kenya Information Network Centre (Kenic) board are finalised.
Kenic chairman Antony Mugambi said the lower charges would help more Kenyans, individuals and corporates to acquire the .ke domains. Presently, acquiring the .ke domain costs Sh2,000. Kenic is responsible for registration of .ke domains.
Schools are the frontline target for the .ke domains, Mr Mugambi said. With nearly 20, 000 schools, inclusive of primary and secondary schools, a major spiral effect of massive uptake of the country domain name will be heavy traffic for local content.
"This means that schools will have their own websites, and this will create local interest in the internet," said Alex Gakuru, chairman ICT Consumer Association.
Bridging the digital divide between rural and urban areas is one of the key planks of Vision 2030, and the lower charges on .ke domain names is seen as serving this need. Several companies have donated computers to schools, but infrastructure remains the main challenge in remote settings that are not served by electricity.
Rural electrification received Sh6.8 billion in the budget read last week by Finance minister Amos Kimunya, with institutions like schools, hospitals, crop collection centres, and trade centres key targets in the initial phase.
With the capacity of the current internet platform, IPv4, set to be exhausted in 2011, yesterday Kenic launched an awareness programme for migration to IPv6, which allows accommodation of more internet addresses.
Kenya will be the first market in Africa to roll out the new internet protocol after being selected on the strength of rapid growth in ICT penetration.
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