***************************
Culled from the BBC News Online.

Seems others just cannot help themselves in wanting
to screw us out of every single penny.

Regards
Manneh

********************************

The internet in Africa is hampered by unfair costs

Africa is being ripped off - to the tune of some $500m a year - simply for
hooking up to the World Wide Web, say Kenyan internet company chiefs.


ISP Chairman Richard Bell
And this extra cost is partly to blame for slowing the spread of the internet
in Africa and helping sustain the digital divide, they contend.

According to Kenya's Internet Service Providers (ISP) Association, the
continent is being forced by Western companies to pay the full cost of
connecting to worldwide networks.

Chairman Richard Bell says this has led to the unfair exploitation of the
continent's young internet industry.

He says the problem is that International Telecommunications Union regulations -
 which ensures the costs of telephone calls between Africa and the West are
split 50:50 - are not being enforced with regard to the internet.

"British Telecom doesn't spend one single penny... America Online doesn't spend
one single cent in sending emails to Africa."

The total cost of any email sent or received by an African internet user is
borne entirely by African ISPs, Mr Bell said on the BBC African service
programme Talkabout Africa.

Despite the relatively high cost of using the internet in Africa, growth has
been rapid in recent years.

All 54 countries are now hooked up to the internet, and there an estimated four
million subscribers across the continent .

In Kenya alone, there are more than 100,000 subscribers and some 250 cyber
cafes across the country.


Bandwidth

Mr Bell said that their association had calculated that the current and latent
demand for bandwidth in Africa cost about $1bn per year.
And he said that if data network operators in the West were forced to adhere to
the same regulations as voice operators then they would have to pay half the
cost.

"The only reason this doesn't happen at the moment is that European and North
American operators are not prepared to pay their share of the costs."

"This is exploitation... These networks are raping Africa of half a billion
dollars a year."

He said that the G8 group of leading nations were responsible for this
inequitable trade and at some point had to act to halt it, if they were serious
about trying to bridge the digital divide. And he said that they as an
association now planned to push for this change.

Action

They are also calling on African countries to take action by getting together
to reduce their costs.

A proposal called the Halfway Proposition urges fellow African countries to
create national exchanges and then interconnected regional ones - as has
occured in other parts of the developing world.

This would at least mean that the communications costs for intra-African emails
stay within Africa - rather than the West benefiting from the cost of an email.

Mike Jenson, who runs the Africa Interconnectivity web site and is surveying
the current utilisation of broadband on the continent, agrees that this could
make a difference.

"No one really knows how much intra-African traffic there is, but it's sure to
grow and become significant if it isn't already," he told BBC News Online.

"If only 5% is intra-regional, it would add up to a sizeable amount," he said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~