[AfrICANN-discuss] Kenya shifts attention to local Web content

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

http://www.cio.co.ke/index.php/view-all-main-stories/301-kenya-shifts-attention-to-local-web-content.html

Kenya shifts attention to local Web content

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   Written
by Rebecca Wanjiku, Computerworld Kenya      Kenya has shifted attention to
local content generation and hosting as a way of pushing down Internet
connectivity costs as the SEACOM and TEAMS fiber-optic cables have failed to
live up to the hype of low costs.

The country is hoping to learn from the West Africa region, which has not
enjoyed low Internet costs despite having an SAT-3 fiber-optic connection
since 2002. The government and Internet service providers are banking on
local content to push down the costs.

East Africa has two fiber-optic cables linking with Europe, national
fiber-optic backbones and Internet exchange points, and companies have
expanded their networks to cover the region. The World Bank, Africa
Development Bank and Middle East investors have also put money in fiber
infrastructure as well as launching new satellites.

However, the content being pushed through those networks is largely
international, meaning the cost of connectivity has not significantly
changed. ISPs in Kenya have realized that infrastructure is one part of
connectivity, and without local content, costs of connectivity will remain
high and consumers will keep complaining.

"We are taking leadership in the ICT sector by partnering with content
providers across all sectors of the economy including government, and
offering them high-quality yet cost-effective solutions over our
infrastructure in the East African region and globally," said Joshua
Chepkwony, chairperson and CEO of Jamii Telecom.

As one of the major shareholders of TEAMS fiber-optic cable, Chepkwony says
the company is working with media, government, educational and financial
institutions to deliver content that will allow consumers to leverage the
extensive infrastructure.

Content generation has been cited as a major driver for low connectivity
costs because it will eliminate the cost of international connectivity. The
government has been identified as a central player in encouraging local
content generation.

The Kenyan government is leading the call for local content and hosting
after complaints of high Internet costs, with the government being accused
of standing by as ISPs conspired to keep the costs higher. The government
has a US$3 million content generation fund, which is expected to spur the
industry.

"The government registries in the ministries of Lands, Judiciary, Motor
Vehicle registration, Company Registry and Immigration are all in various
stages of the procurement process. Once the shared service platform is
ready, it will change," said Bitange Ndemo, permanent secretary in the
Ministry of Information and Communication.

Ndemo was responding to criticism that the government continued spending on
advertising jobs in newspapers and ignored online advertising, where it had
an opportunity to reach higher numbers.

"How can the government get money to place an advert in the print media
worth 7 million Kenyan shillings, which only reaches 1 million people, yet
you are having a problem digitizing critical information?" asked Robert
Yawe, CEO of KAY System Technologies in Nairobi.
In West Africa, Ghana is a tech leader, but it is still facing challenges
developing and encouraging people to use local content as a way to make
connectivity cheaper.

Over the past few years there have been a number of policies on
e-government, but implementation has been slow and all of the government Web
sites are still static with only a few forms available for download, said
Kwaswo Ansah, an IT expert and consultant based in Accra.

"Apart from the setting up of an Internet exchange point, there has been
very little done to encourage local Web hosting and the development of local
content for Ghanaians," Ansah added.

Ansah thinks that innovative content will be needed to educate and speed up
the development process in the continent, which can justify the massive cost
of building thousands of miles of submarine fiber bringing gigabits/second
Internet to Africa.

While local content generation and hosting will help lower the costs, many
country top-level domains are poorly managed with unfriendly pricing
structures compared to the economies where they are based.

"Once we get higher numbers for the .ke, the price can be reduced from the
current $40 per domain," said Joe Kiragu, the administrative manager at
KENIC, the .ke TLD registry.

Kiragu admitted that the ICT industry in Kenya has been calling for lower
domain costs but was noncommittal on when KENIC will heed the call and lower
costs.

According to Google, it is very important that Web site owners register on .
co.ke (or .co.ug etcetera) if they target the local population and not .com
or .net because it helps in their ranking on Google for local users.

"Domain registries in some African countries think of themselves as a
business rather than public service. From our perspective, domain names
shouldn't cost any more than $1 or $2 per year, and pricing them at current
levels (tens of dollars and beyond) is constraining the development of the
Internet in Africa," said a Google source, who requested anonymity.

Google is one of the major sources of content in Africa, and the company
says it is deploying caching devices in various locations where it makes
sense, especially for bandwidth-hungry applications.
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