By Niclas Mika
But more than 300 million people in rural parts of Africa
are not yet covered by any mobile phone network, let alone one
that would support Internet access, and the continent has only
35 million fixed telephone lines for almost a billion people.
The huge potential this presents has attracted foreign
buyers from Britain's Vodafone to France Telecom, and recently
India's Bharti Airtel expressed interest in buying Africa's top
telecoms company MTN.
Much is at stake, not only for newcomers to the continent
who need to balance political risks and opportunities, but also
for Africa's economic development.
While Western consumers may associate slow download speeds
primarily with the time it takes for a YouTube video to start
playing, for African companies, the amount and cost of
bandwidth available directly affect their ability to do
business.
Many in the industry believe that wireless Internet access
will be key. But for the substantial part of Africa's
population that lives on less than $1 a day, owning even a
low-cost phone, much less one capable of accessing the Web, is
out of reach.
"While we are trying to close the gap in telephony, another
gap is now being created in Internet... it's a real challenge,"
Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International
Telecommunication Union, told Reuters.
Industry executives say there are business cases for
covering villages with mobile phone networks or bringing
wireless broadband to urban and suburban areas.
For such communities, MTN Rwanda, for instance, has been
successful in creating a "mobile pay phone."
A local individual owns the phone, sells call time and
receives a share of the revenue, MTN Rwanda Chief Executive
Andrew Rugege said. Some 9,500 Rwandans have found employment
that way, supporting at least as many families.
STEEP COST
But new fibre-optic cables connecting Africa to Europe, the
Middle East and Asia will boost bandwidth and drive down prices
when they come on line over the next two years, said Eric
Osiakwan, director of the African Internet Service Providers
Association.
Almost a dozen cables have been announced for a total
investment of $6.4 billion, he said. They offer the chance to
cut comparatively steep costs of telephone and Internet
connections via satellite.
Backers include telecoms companies such as UAE's Etisalat,
financial investors such as Blackstone, the government of
Kenya, as well as the World Bank and other development
institutions.
(editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
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