Access
As other African countries along the SAT-3 submarine internet cable struggle with the high costs of monopolised international bandwidth, Mauritius has encouraged a lowering of prices through price-setting. But Mauritius Telecom had lowered its rates even before the government scale came into effect. The Cyber Island has seen a significant increase in its call centre and outsourcing sectors. Can Mauritius provide lessons to countries that are looking to boost their economies? This study writt...
Africa faces two serious challenges regarding internet connectivity – high prices and unreliable connections. The SAT-3/WASC cable, a submarine cable that runs from Portugal to South Africa, has the potential to help alleviate some of the connectivity challenges however, a study released by the APC in May 2008 and now in French and Portuguese written by Abiodun Jagun, reveals that the cable remains largely under-utilised. APCNews talks to Abi Jagun about her findings.
Open Access in the context of Communication (Open Communication) means that anyone, on equal conditions with a transparent relation between cost and pricing, can get access to and share communication resources on one level to provide value added services on another level in layered communication system architecture.Open Access Conferences have been organized since 2003 with the objectives of sh...
Africans pay five to ten times more than Canadians do to access the internet. It is even more costly in rural settings, where a connection is often hard to find. However, what is even more scandalous is the fact that the consumers have no say. A walk on the dark side of the internet.
Overall Workshop Objective: to begin the process of developing the Andean ICT for development that will disseminate research and undertake advocacy on ICT for Development and access to infrastructure at the sub-regional level, in order to create a sound platform for sub-regional connectivity that will provide a platform for the effective use of ICTs in development processes. The first objective...
“Access to the internet is a thousand times cheaper in Scandinavian countries than in my village,” says Nigerian activist John Dada, who specialises in information and communications technologies (ICTs) for development. In order to contribute to the discussion on what can make access to the internet real for people, specially the poor and marginalised, APC is launching a series on equitable...
Privatisation without regulation does not necessarily improve service delivery, and may even decrease access to information and communication technology for the poor. This is the view of US-based academic and ICT policy analyst Robert Horwitz, who was speaking at a one-week research workshop held in Johannesburg in July 2008. Horwitz is no newcomer to South Africa, or to the politics behind ant...
The majority of the world’s population is still isolated from the opportunities offered by the global revolution in information and communications technologies (ICTs) – and the poor are the hardest hit. This is the view of Ethiopian-based ICT expert Lishan Adam, whose issue paper Policies for equitable access considers policy interventions to rectify the imbalances between rich and poor wh...
Grassroots communities need to get their hands dirty in shaping how information and communications technologies (ICTs) affect their lives, rather than passively leaving it up to governments and big business to decide. This is the view of Kenyan-based ICT consultant Muriuki Mureithi, whose issue paper, Business models for equitable access, looks at ways of making ICT for development projects s...
“Sometimes doing the wrong thing with technology is better than doing nothing,” says research associate at the South African-based Shuttleworth Foundation, Steve Song. And, he suggests, when it comes to technology, the unexpected should be encouraged to happen. Song, an open source advocate, was responding to an issue paper by technical activist Alberto Escudero-Pascual, entitled Tools and...
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