[afnog] Challenges in the African Continent

[SM]

Hi Mark,
At 00:59 31-03-2009, Mark Tinka wrote:
>Right, but you need to remember that there are several
>countries in Africa that have several different tribes, each
>with their own language with little or no similarity to
>neighboring tribes.
>
>In such cases, English has been embraced as an official
>trading language.

Yes.

>However, yes, content does need to cater for folk that
>couldn't care less about English or any other languages, but
>still need to be online. This may vary from country to
>country.

Yes.

>For the East African region, I believe both Kenya and Uganda
>have been rolling out fibre connectivity to the border for
>their interconnect, as well as extending internal/national
>reach, primarily to areas that already have a higher
>concentration of Internet users.

I look forward to hear the views of people from that region on the above.

>Other companies have built out metro fibre around the major
>cities, and continue to do so. Perhaps someone from .tz can
>comment on the status there. I know Rwanda have a very
>aggressive ICT agenda; uncertain about Burundi.

I heard of some work in Burundi on a similar agenda.  I don't recall 
whether it was part of the Africa Regional Communications 
Infrastructure Program.

>The point is, work is on going, and it is understood that
>without a national backbone, fully harnessing the cable
>systems will be next to impossible.

Agreed.

>Unless several different players are doing it, and covering
>separate areas. This is a function of regulation and
>business models, although there can't be too much fibre in
>the ground.

Yes.  The more communication links you have, the better.

>That's why it's not just a technology problem -
>comprehensive solutions need to be considered. There's
>interest at every level in the chain, good or bad.

Agreed.

>I'm not saying folk haven't started using their brains to do
>what they can with the little they have. I'm only saying
>that they can only go so far, and a little help is needed
>beyond that.

If the community think in terms of what more we can do instead of we 
have reached the limits of what we can do, there are ways to find the 
little help to go beyond that.

>Operators, individually, cannot build cable systems. A
>collaboration of operators and, perhaps, some government
>involvement, can be build cable systems.

I made some comments about this in another message.

>And by the time they choose to, they will realise that
>there's pent-up demand, regardless of whether they are
>seeing the "moolah" now or not.

Agreed.

>In some markets, regulation has permitted operators to build
>their own infrastructure. It may not be as wide as what the
>incumbent has to offer, but it's a start.
>
>In markets where competition is not allowed, there is little
>choice ISP's have.

I hope that there are regulators reading this.

>These creative approaches have already been implemented,
>e.g., solar-powered wireless phone booths, solar-powered
>container-based Internet booths, remote portable satellite,
>e.t.c.
>
>The scale is still small, and some projects may not have
>been sustainable, but it's a start.

These creative approaches fuel innovation.  That's good for the 
continent.  We learn how to adapt technology to our needs.  There are 
a lot of Internet start-ups that do not survive.  The ones that do 
survive make up for the rest.

Regards,
-sm