July 23rd, 2007
Rwanda experience shows difficulty in connecting Africa to the net
Despite investment from big players in the U.S. and elsewhere, most of Africa lags far behind when it comes to Internet infrastructure, reports the New York Times.
Civil war, corruption and political instability have made it difficult for companies to invest in Africa. Seventy-five percent of email messages and phone calls from Africa must be routed through Britain or the U.S., making the Internet much more expensive than if their infrastructure was healthier.
“Most African governments haven’t paid much attention to their infrastructure,” said Vincent Oria, an associate professor of computer science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a native of the Ivory Coast. “In places where hunger, AIDS and poverty are rampant, they didn’t see it as critical until now.”
The four percent of the population that subscribes to the Internet live in North or South Africa. All other users connect through Internet cafes.
There is one undersea cable that runs from Portugal down the west coast of Africa. The $600 million dollar cable was supposed to provide less expensive and faster Internet, but that hasn’t happened.
The reason is the national telecommunications companies linked to the cable maintain a monopoly over access, leaving limited room for competition. Most countries in East Africa, like Rwanda, depend on slower satellite technology for Internet service.
“Unless you can offer Internet access that is the same as the rest of the world, Africa can’t be part of the global economy or academic environment,” said Lawrence H. Landweber, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, who was also part of an early effort to bring the Web to Africa in the mid-1990s. “The benefits of the Internet age will bypass the continent.”
The experience of Terracom, an Internet company based in Boston, which attempted to wire Rwanda may exemplify some of the issues plaguing African countries’ efforts to connect to the Internet.
Terracom won a contract to wire 300 Rwandan schools, but as of today few improvements have been made.
“There were spots where they did some things here and there,” said Albert Butare, the country’s telecommunications minister. “But over all they have failed to do what they promised.”
Among the projects problems: Terracom couldn’t find enough qualified staff. Internet rates could not be made low enough to be affordable for a population with an average annual income of $220. And, the government charged, Terracom spent more time signing up cellphone companies that expanding service.
Last year, the Rwandan government accused Terracom of trading its shares in the Rwandan telecom to GV Telecom. Terracom was also fined nearly $400,000 for failing to comply with its licensing obligations, failing to provide information about its operations and failing to pay several fees.
“We decided to penalize Terracom after they failed to fulfill their obligations for a long time,” said Beatha Mukangabo, legal officer for the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Agency. Terracom said it has paid the fines and is working with the government to meet all of its obligations.
Christopher Lundh, Terracom’s new chief executive and a former executive of Gateway Communications in London, was brought in to remedy the situation. Terracom is continuing to lay cable and has eliminated the need for Rwandan traffic to be routed via European or American networks.
“The former management did make some promises that they were not able to keep,” he said. “That’s why I was brought in to professionalize things.” He also said that the company could have better handled the matter with GV Telecom but that he thinks the government overreacted.
The Rwandan government and companies from South Africa are also making plans to install fiber optic cable.
“We think we are going to have a healthier market pretty soon,” said Nkubito Bakuramutsa, director general of the Rwanda Information Technology Authority. “We have learned from past experience.”
