> > African Internet Status > > Sept 2000 > > Mike Jensen - [log in to unmask] > > The Internet has grown rapidly on the continent over the last few > years. At the end of 1996 only 11 countries had Internet access, > but by September this year all 54 countries and territories had > achieved permanent connectivity. Liberia, however, currently has no > local Internet services (Liberia was connected last year, but lost > its link when the ISP failed to achieve commercial viability). > > Despite the rapid growth of Internet access in Africa it has been > largely confined to the capital cities, although a growing number > of countries do have points of presence (POPs) in some of the > secondary towns (currently 16 countries - Algeria, Angola, > Botswana, DRC, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, > Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and > Zimbabwe), and South Africa has POPs in about 100 cities and towns. > However, in some countries the national telecom operators have made > a special policy to provide local call Internet access across the > whole country. ... so far only 15 of the 53 countries have adopted > this strategy - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cap Vert, Ethiopia, Gabon, > Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Tchad, Togo, > Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. > > The total number of computers permanently connected to the Internet > in Africa (excluding South Africa) finally broke the 10 000 mark at > the beginning of 1999 and in Jan 2000 it stood at almost 12 000, an > increase of 20% as measured by Network Wizards. The figure may > actually be closer to 25 000 to 30 000 due to the measurement > technique which cannot count hosts which are not referenced in > domain name servers and those that are registered under the generic > TLDs - .com, .net, .org. Nevertheless this still means Africa has > about as many hosts on the Internet as a small Eastern European > country such as Latvia, which only has a population of 2.5 million > (compared to the 780m people in Africa's as estimated by Unicef > 1998, about 13% of the total world population). > > The recent opening up of the Nigerian Internet market is beginning > to change this picture as the telecom regulator has licensed 38 > ISPs to sell services and about 12 are currently active. With a > fifth of Sub Sahara's population, Nigeria has been one of the > slumbering giants of the African Internet world which until mid '98 > only had a few dialup email providers and a couple of full ISPs > operating on very low bandwidth links - few were able to afford the > $130 000 a year for an international 9.6Kbps leased line. Nitel has > now established a POP in Lagos with a 2MB link to Global One in the > US and has put POPs in 4 other cities.. > > It is difficult to measure actual numbers of Internet users, but > figures for the number of dialup subscriber accounts to ISPs are > more readily available, for which it is estimated that there are > now over 1 000 000 subscribers in Africa. Of these, North Africa is > responsible for about 200 000 and South Africa for 650 000, leaving > about 150 000 for the remaining 50 African countries. But each > computer with an Internet or email connection supports an average > of three users, a recent study by the UN Economic Commission for > Africa (ECA) has found. This puts current estimates of the number > of African Internet users at somewhere around 3 million in total, > with about 1 million outside of South Africa. This works out at > about one Internet user for every 250 people, compared to a world > average of about one user for every 35 people, and a North American > and European average of about one in every 3 people. ... > > There are now about 28 countries with 1000 or more dialup > subscribers, but only about 11 countries with 5000 or more - Cote > d'Ivoire, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South > Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Clearly a number of countries > such as those in North Africa and Southern Africa have more highly > developed economies and better infrastructures which would > naturally result in larger populations of Internet users. ... > > Currently, the average total cost of using a local dialup Internet > account for 5 hours a month in Africa is about $50/month (usage > fees, telephone time included, but not telephone line rental). > Nevertheless ISP charges vary greatly - between $10 and $100 a > month, largely reflecting the different levels of maturity of the > markets, the varying tariff policies of the telecom operators, and > the different national policies on private wireless data services > and on access to international telecommunications bandwidth. > According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and > Development, in '97, 20 hours of Internet access in the U.S. cost > $29, including telephone charges. Although European costs were > higher ($74 in Germany, $52 in France, $65 in Britain, and $53 in > Italy) these figures are for 4 times the amount of access, and all > of these countries have per capita incomes which are at least 10 > times greater than the African average. > > Most African capitals now have more than one ISP and in early 2000 > there were about 450 public ISPs across the region (excluding SA, > where the market has consolidated into 2 major players with 90% of > the market and 40-50 small players with the remainder). Seven > countries had 10 or more ISPs - Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, > South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe - while 20 countries had only > one ISP. Although Ethiopia and Mauritius are the only countries > where a monopoly ISP is national policy (i.e. where private > companies are barred from reselling Internet services), there are > other countries in which this practice still continues, > predominantly in the Sahel sub-region where markets are small. > > In response to the high cost of full Internet based services and > the slow speed of the web, and also because of the overriding > importance of electronic mail, lower-cost email-only services have > been launched by many ISPs and are continuing to attract > subscribers. Similarly, because of the relatively high cost of > local electronic mailbox services from African ISPs, a large > proportion of African email users make use of the free Web-based > services such as Hotmail, Yahoo or Excite, most of which are in the > US. These services can be more costly and cumbersome than using > standard email software, because extra online time is needed to > maintain the connection to the remote site. But they do provide the > added advantages of anonymity and perhaps greater perceived > stability than a local ISP who may not be in business next year. > > There is also a rapidly growing interest in kiosks, cybercafes and > other forms of public Internet access, such as adding PCs to > community phone-shops, schools, police stations and clinics which > can share the cost of equipment and access amongst a larger number > of users. Many existing 'phone shops' are now adding Internet > access to their services, even in remote towns where it is a > long-distance call to the nearest dialup access point. In addition > a growing number of hotels and business centres provide a PC with > Internet access. > > The rapidity with which most African public telecom operators have > moved into the Internet services market is also noteworthy. In the > last three years PTOs have brought Internet services on stream in > 31 countries and similar moves are afoot in three others (Liberia, > Somalia and Tanzania). ... > > In all the countries where the PTO has established the > international Internet backbone, it is the sole International link > provider except in Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Mozambique, South Africa > and Zambia where they compete with private sector international > links. Usually the PTOs operate the international gateway and > access to the national backbone, and leave the resale of end-user > Internet access to the private sector. In a few countries the PTO > also competes with the private sector in the provision of end-user > dialup accounts, namely, Cameroun, South Africa and Zambia. > > As far as the multinational ISPs are concerned, AfricaOnline > (http://www.africaonline.com), is the largest operation. The group > is consolidating its year of growth which saw local branches open > in Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, adding to its > stable in Ghana, Kenya, and Cote d'Ivoire. AfricaOnline has plans > to open up in additional countries over the coming months. ... > > Due to high international tariffs and lack of circuit capacity, > obtaining sufficient international bandwidth for delivering web > pages over the Internet is still a major problem in most countries. > Until recently few of the countries outside of South Africa had > international Internet links larger than 64Kbps, but today 24 > countries have 512Kps or more, and 15 countries have outgoing links > of 1Mbps or more - Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, > Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, > Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Tunisia. Excluding South > Africa, the total international outgoing Internet bandwidth > installed in Africa is about 60Mbps. However this means that on > average about 6 dialup users must share each 1Kbps of international > bandwidth, making for slow connections to remote sites. > > As a result, a growing number of African Internet sites are hosted > on servers that are in Europe or the U.S. This is especially > necessary for countries where ISPs operate their own independent > international links without local interconnections (peering), such > as in Kenya and Tanzania, which means that traffic between the > subscribers of two ISPs in the same city must travel to the US or > Europe and back. This makes it more efficient to host > outside-country, and is also being encouraged because web hosting > costs can be very high, while there are even a number of free > hosting sites in the US and Europe. ... > > With the exception of some ISPs in Southern Africa, almost all of > the international Internet circuits in Africa connect to the USA, > with a few to the United Kingdom, Italy and France. However, > Internet Service Providers in countries with borders shared with > South Africa benefit from the low tariff policies instituted by the > South African telecom operator for international links to > neighbouring countries. As a result South Africa acts as a hub for > some of its neighbouring countries - Lesotho, Namibia, and > Swaziland. > > The major international Internet suppliers are AT&T, BT, Global > One/Sprint, UUNET/AlterNet, MCI, NSN, BBN, Teleglobe, Verio and > France Telecom/FCR. A number of other links are provided by > PanamSat and Intelsat direct to private and PTO groundstations in > the US and UK, circumventing local PTO infrastructure. > > Aside from the South Africa/Lesotho/Swaziland network and a link > between Mauritius and Madagascar, there are no other regional > backbones or links between neighbouring countries. The main reason > for this is that the high international tariffs charged by telecom > operators discourages Internet Service Providers from establishing > multiple international links. As a result ISPs are forced to > consolidate all of their traffic over a single high cost > international circuit. > > Roaming dialup Internet access is now a reality for travellers to > most African countries courtesy of SITA, the airline co-operative, > which has by far the largest network in Africa. SITA's commercial > division, SCITOR (recently renamed Equant), which was formed to > service the non-airline market, now operates dialup points of > presence in 40 African countries. Subscribers to Internet service > providers who are members of IPASS (a group of ISPs, including > SITA, who share their POPs) can access their home ISPs for about > $0.22c a minute. See http://www.ipass.com. ... > > The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has now taken > over administration of Internet IP Address space for Africa (along > with North America, South America, and the Caribbean). This means > that address space is no longer free and until a local African > Registry can be set up, networks will now be required to pay ARIN > USD$2500 per year to obtain a Class-C address. A proposal for an > Africa Network Information Centre (NIC) has been discussed for some > years only now is progress being made, partly because of the lack > of on-the-ground national networking associations to support it and > the political difficulties of identifying the appropriate host > country and organisation to operate it. ... > > Evidence gathered by ECA suggests the average level of Internet use > in Africa is about one incoming and one outgoing email per day, > averaging 3 to 4 pages, in communications which are most often with > people outside the continent. Surveys indicated that about 25 > percent of the email is replacing faxes, while 10 percent are > replacing phone calls and the other 65 percent are communications > that would not have been made in the absence of an email system. > > The highest number of users surveyed belonged to non-government > organizations (NGOs), private companies and universities. The ratio > of nationals to non-nationals varied between countries: 44 percent > of users surveyed in Zambia were nationals as compared to 90 > percent in Ghana. Most users were male: 86 percent in Ethiopia, 83 > percent in Senegal, and 64 percent in Zambia. The large majority of > users were well educated: 87 percent of users in Zambia and 98 > percent in Ethiopia had a university degree. ... > > Email is used for general correspondence and document exchange, > technical advice, managing projects, arranging meetings, and > exchanging research ideas, although its use is still limited for > accessing formal information resources. Across the continent, users > report that email has increased efficiency and reduced the cost of > communication but as yet it is used almost exclusively for > contacting individuals in other regions. The Web is still a > relatively under-utilised resource, although 40 percent of Zambian > users questioned had conducted literature searches on the web. > > Universities were initially at the vanguard of Internet > developments in Africa and most of them provide email services, > however in early 1999 only about 20 countries had universities with > full Internet connectivity. Because of the limited resources and > high costs of providing computer facilities and bandwidth, full > Internet access at the universities where it exists is usually > restricted to staff. Post graduates are often able to obtain access > but the general student population usually has no access. > > In the area of Internet content development, the African web-space > is expanding rapidly and almost all countries have some form of > local or internationally hosted web server, unofficially or > officially representing the country with varying degrees of > comprehensiveness. However, there are still generally few > institutions that are using the Web to deliver significant > quantities of information. While increasing numbers of > organisations have a Web site with basic descriptive and contact > information, many are hosted by international development agency > sites, and very few actually use the Web for their activities. This > is partly explained by the limited number of local people that have > access to the Internet (and thus the limited importance of a web > presence to the institution), the limited skills available for > digitising and coding pages, and also by the high costs of local > web hosting services. > > It can be observed that the French speaking countries have a far > higher profile on the Web and greater institutional connectivity > than the non-French speaking countries. This is largely due to the > strong assistance provided by the various Francophone support > agencies, and the Canadian and French governments, which are > concerned about the dominance of English on the Internet. ... > > Although there are a few notable official general government web > sites, such as those of Angola, Egypt, Gabon, Mauritius, Morocco, > Mozambique, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia and Zambia, there is as yet no > discernible government use of the Internet for existing > administrative purposes. ... > > ************************************************************ > This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the > Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC provides accessible > information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and > international policies toward Africa that advance economic, > political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights. > > Auto-response addresses for more information (send any e-mail > message): [log in to unmask] (about the Africa Policy > Electronic Distribution List); [log in to unmask] (about APIC). > Documents previously distributed, as well as a wide range of > additional information, are also available on the Web at: > http://www.africapolicy.org > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------