Africa’s Climb to an Internet Revolution
Students working in Abuja Nigeria. Source: Liba Taylor/CORBIS
Bandwith to Africa is expected to grow dramatically as the continent is gaining internet connectivity faster than any other region in the world.
Africa’s online population now exceeds 50 million, according to an estimate published by Internet World Stats, an internet research and statistics website. This marks a 1000% increase since 2000 and continued exponential growth is expected. Although this figure only represents a 5.3% internet penetration rate on the African continent, compared with nearly 25% worldwide, the actual number of internet users may be six to eight times larger due to the growth of internet cafes and various other multi-person access points.
One of Africa’s major roadblocks in expanding internet connectivity is caused by the scarce and expensive bandwidth. West Africa, for example, is connected to the rest of the globe via a single fibre-optic cable (SAT-3/WASC). East Africa, on the other hand, remains unconnected from the global grid and relies on Satellite links for internet access. This has resulted in an outrageous price tag for broadband internet in African countries which costs 50 times more than in developed countries such as the United States.
Johannesburg-based specialist Mike Jensen, who has been a key player in setting up and maintaining networks around Africa, highlights that “all of Africa’s 53 countries and territories have internet connectivity, the challenge now is to broaden access and ensure that costs are brought down.” Non-profit organizations such as Fiber For Africa believe the high costs of international bandwidth on the continent are an obstacle to its social and economic development, and are also campaigning to fight the monopoly on Africa’s bandwidth.
Africa - Fiber Optic Map
The Spread of Access
Despite the high cost of internet access in Africa, the SAT-3/WASC cable system has seen some price decline recently, thanks to a competitive strategy of linking new submarine cable systems to the continent. This effort is currently being spearheaded by the TEAMS, EASSy, and SEACOM initiatives that are part of a joint project amongst several countries aiming to provide Africa with a fiber-optic backbone connection to the internet.
Internet connectivity is also spreading to smaller African cities and rural areas via innovative technologies such as WiMAX. WiMAX technology is faster, more affordable, and leverages non-line-of-sight (NLOS) connectivity between subscriber stations and base stations with a cell radii of three to ten kilometers; ultimately solving the problematic last mile delivery issue in rural parts of Africa. Another technology contributing to connectivity in Africa is Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL) which provides broadband internet access through ordinary power lines. Devices only need to plug a BPL modem into any power outlet in an equipped building to access high-speed internet. Although BPL technology has faced problems due to variations in the physical characteristics of electrical networks, it has successfully brought broadband internet access to 4% of Africa’s rural communities.
Africa’s Internet Leaders
According to Internet World Stats, Nigeria was able to boost its online population from fewer than 2 million people in April of 2006 to a staggering 10 million in June of 2008, raising its status to having the most internet users on the continent. This surge in internet usage is attributed to Horizon Wireless‘ experimental broadband internet project that uses WiMAX to provide Nigerians with affordable internet access.
Aside from Nigeria, Mauritius and Seychelles exhibit the highest internet penetration rate, at 26.7% and 38.9% respectively. Both of these countries have benefited from a well-established telecommunication infrastructure in the past and smaller land surface areas which helped in avoiding the last mile delivery problem.
Development Impact
With the implementation of the new technologies discussed in this article, Africa is moving one step closer to bridging the digital divide – allowing her citizens to connect themselves and participate in discussions with the rest of the world, and creating opportunities for learning and global business that will ultimately impact her social, cultural, economic and political activities.
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This is excellent news — without progress and development in Africa, on all fronts, the world is, literally, an infinitely poorer place.
Thank you for your comment Oopali. This is excellent news indeed. Progress in Africa can certainly come true with our collective efforts and by engaging Africa in creating sustainable solutions to overcome difficult developmental challenges. By the way, I had a glimpse at your website and the Sustainable Technology Venture Competition — great way to tap into India’s incredible talent!
The time has come for us to think as a planet. In my work on the environment and climate change, issues of irrevocable and ineluctable interdependency between nations keep cropping up. We cannot afford to think in the box any longer — if Africa fails to meet its developmental goals, it is bad news for tout le monde.
Thank you for your response to The Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition, India. Indian students are great innovators, and I’m confident they will do everything possible to ascertaining a sustainable future for the planet. The amazing thing is how one competition has already enhanced levels of awareness about climate change.
I’ll organize a competition in Africa some day too!
It’s interesting that you can draw a parallel between the environment/climate change and development in an interconnected world – it truly is something we cannot afford to ignore any longer.
We would surely appreciate it if you could keep us posted on your competition when it comes to Africa!!
[...] Academic Earth on my radar. Hat-tip Peter Klein. 3. Africa’s Climb to an Internet Revolution -Global Advances. Aside from Nigeria, Mauritius and Seychelles exhibit the highest internet penetration rate, at [...]
[...] blog looks at the future of the Internet on the African continent noting that, “Bandwith to Africa is expected to grow dramatically as [...]
Africa’s Climb to an Internet Revolution…
Bandwith to Africa is expected to grow dramatically as the continent is gaining internet connectivity faster than any other region in the world.
Africa’s online population now exceeds 50 million, according to an estimate published by Internet World …
Africa’s Climb to an Internet Revolution | Global Advances Blog – Social Entrepreneurship in Action…
Internet access is exploding in Africa….
[...] Africa’s Climb to an Internet Revolution http://globaladvances.com/blog/2009/02/07/africas-climb-to-an-internet-revolution/ [...]
[...] hovering tantalisingly close to realisation. Global Advances has a great article on the developments ahead and many are optimistic that 2009 will see the first new fibre coming online for both west and [...]
An important overview. I have a story on the shrinking digital gap, too, on the African Times website: http://www.african-times.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=878:closing-the-digital-gap&catid=39:business&Itemid=55
Very informative story on how the gap is being addressed – Thank you for the share Klaus.
[...] not South Africa. Nigeria (scroll down). Meanwhile, that country’s techies have launched their own version of twitter, [...]
According to Internet World Statistics, the Africa and Middle East (AME) region has in excess of 77 million internet users. To put that into perspective, the AME online population is almost double the entire online population of the UK (estimated 40m), 30% of China (253m) and 35% of the USA (220m)
This signals the emergence of a digital boom in the region. You may be interested in reading a similar article i wrote regarding digital media in Africa here.
http://digitalroundtable.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/branding-in-africa-a-digital-perspective/
Thank you for sharing and contributing to this post Chipo – as your article suggests, digital media seems to grow in parallel with internet connectivity, this is great news for the region -
thanks for the article, am new to the site …
its also worthy to note that the east african region is the last region on the globe to be connected to the international internet grid. As i sit in my sitting room waiting to see a web page load at a 2KB speed (which is supposed to be broadband) i can not imagine the profound convenience of real broadband to my life and the region. There is massive activity in the ICT industry here, almost to the extent to make one feel that mana is about to drop from heaven! in June. But seriously we see the docking of the cable as a situation that will lubricate our economy and lead to more opportunities that will spread to all sectors.
here are some links from our local dailies following the events -
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13115&Itemid=5847
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12924&Itemid=5847
We appreciate you comments and links Maina. Based on the article links you provided, it seems that there’s a scramble to develop ICT in Kenya. Let’s hope that investment continues to flow in the East African region and that it provides the higher bandwidth to allow for more development opportunities. We’d appreciate if you could keep us posted on developments there, sincerely hoping that 2KB will becoming something of the past and that prices continue to fall!
GA admin,
thanks for your comments and the blog! i will update you on future updates.
One major thing that i know we as working professionals and the business community in the country are waiting for is a legal frame work for enhanced e-commerce on the net. We can use the pay pals and visas and all for now, but what will really make more sense right now are safaricom’s mpesa* or zain’s zap kind of innovations for the net ( these are money transfer/payment innovation solutions using the cellphone – which have over night, literally – been an runaway success, working for both the banked and un-banked in the society ). These kinds of innovations will make the premise of the internet “penetration” notion as vital to the economy as the cellphone has become recently in helping lubricating financial transactions, at a more efficient and safe level and a vast number of people at very very affordable rates ( a transaction can cost as little as 40US cents when transferring up-to 500 USD equivalent).
This is where business leaders and policy makers should be gearing vast resources to ensure happens. ( my opinion !)
more on m-pesa
http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=2263
This is really innovative Maina – I’ve heard of similar technology being used in Korea and Japan (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/22/tech/main631231.shtml) provided by a company named DoCoMo. Cell phones are becoming ubiquitous in Africa and if the right legal framework can be enforced in cooperation with the banks, this could be a major advancement that will facilitate commerce across the country. It’s exciting to think that this would be available in Kenya even before countries like the United States!
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Many people were skeptical when mobile phones began to gain popularity in Africa but some innovative payment methods and innovative applications by customers made them very powerful tools. It was said that places where people were poor, cell phones would be an unneeded luxury at best and a misguided imposition by western technophiles at worst. Yet Africans found them so useful in achieving productivity gains and increasing wealth creation power that the market took off. Now I seem hear that cell phones are being manufactured in Africa for the African market.
I would not be surprised to see Internet penetration continue to expand rapidly as broadband allows more applications (both in the sense of actual software applications and in the sense of ideas for the integration of the technology into African societies and economies) to be developed.
All of this will promote rapid development initially but it will also push African nations to the point where continuation of economic and political reforms become more pressing just as China is grappling with such issues. All nations need economic and political reforms to ensure prosperity and liberty but rapid economic growth tends to make the need for such reforms more glaring, especially when economies cool and growth slows after having been expanding.
[...] Within the couple of months, four high-speed fibre optic cables, lain across the ocean floor, will join the continent up to the rest of the world via broadband. For a continent which has relied on satellites [...]