For those interested - <br><a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Online.html">http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Online.html</a><br><br clear="all"><h2 style="margin-bottom: 15px;">
Computing and Online Knowledge</h2>
<table align="center">
<tbody><tr>
<td width="120"><hr class="H4"></td><td width="10"> <br></td>
<td> <span style="font-size: 20px;"> </span>
<h4 class="blue">Computers in African Universities</h4> </td>
<td width="10"> <br></td><td width="120"><hr class="H4"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
<span class="headtext">
Are computers necessary for a university education? </span>
It is possible to teach most subjects well and thoroughly without
expensive technology. But computers offer a solution to a problem
identified by all the students surveyed: outdated textbooks and course
materials. They are also vital for much of modern science, engineering,
and business. Leaving students without programming skills may leave
them underprepared for graduate school or unemployable in industry. </p>
<table>
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top">
<p class="bodyleft">
<span class="headtext">Access to the internet</span>
is so desirable to students in Africa that they spend considerable time
and money to get it. Many students surveyed, with no internet
connection at their universities, resorted to private, fee-charging
internet cafes to study and learn. The fees are not small: several
US$/hr, exceeding in many countries the average daily income. One
student reports spending large amounts of time walking to the internet
cafe because he could not afford both the internet fee and the taxi
fare. (Imagine, by analogy, U.S. college students walking for hours and
paying $100/hr to do optional reading). Connection to online knowledge
is valued enough by students in Africa that they will make that
sacrifice. </p></td>
<td valign="center">
<p class="figure-r">
<img src="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/images/Online_cybercafe.jpg" alt="Internet cafe in Ghana (image from the BBC World News Service)" border="0">
</p>
<p class="figcap-r"> Internet cafe (Ghana)</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p style="font-style: italic; margin-left: 75px; margin-right: 75px;">
-- read this <a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Essays/essays/Ethiopia_1.pdf">survey</a>
from Ethiopia for the trauma of trying to write a research paper
without textbooks, research journals, instruction, or an internet
connection. </p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Programming </span>is essential for
at least graduate-level science, engineering, and business:
all use computer-based data analysis, modeling and numerical simulation.
Computer use for data analysis can also, if taught well, help focus science
instruction more on problem solving than on memorization of received knowledge.
The students surveyed here, mostly participants in an
international postgraduate program for science and math graduates, universally report that its chief benefit
was practice in scientific computing. They also cite
lack of programming instruction as one of the chief faults of their undergraduate educations.
</p>
<p style="font-style: italic; margin-left: 75px; margin-right: 75px;">
-- read this <a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Essays/essays/SouthAfrica_1.pdf">survey</a>
from the comparatively wealthy South Africa for the conditions for
learning programming at understaffed and underequipped universities </p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Hardware.</span>
The most common response that students gave to the question "what can
international donors do for African universities?" was "provide
computers." Although lack of instructors in programming may eventually
become an issue, at present the first need of African universities is
hardware.
One student surveyed described programming classes where all programs
were written on paper; there were no computers available for running
them. Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, with 30,000 undergraduates,
had exactly 19 computers and 1 printer in its libraries in 2006 (see
this <a href="http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/%7Embolin/etim.htm"> study of Nigerian universities</a>).
</p>
<table>
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="center">
<p class="figure-l">
<img src="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/images/Online_OLPC_250.jpg" alt="$100 laptop from the One Laptop Per Child project. The first production models are now available (early 2007)." border="0">
</p> <p class="figcap-l"> $100 laptop</p>
</td>
<td valign="top">
<p class="bodyright">
One possibility for upgrading African universities' computing
facilities at low cost is to use the $100 laptops designed by the <a href="http://www.laptop.org/vision/index.shtml">One Laptop Per Child </a>project. The laptops were targeted at children (6-12 years), and several governments and the UNDP have signed
<a href="http://content.undp.org/go/newsroom/january-2006/100-dollar-laptop-20060128.en;jsessionid=a_Q884XX38gg">agreements</a>
to purchase and distribute them to primary schoolchildren. The OLPC
machines would be a tremendous resource for university students as
well. At minimum they can serve as e-books, accessing freely available
textbooks and other online course material (see <a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Online.html#curriculum">below</a>).
"Mesh networking" allows efficient connectivity and sharing of material
with any other OLPC laptop within 1/4 mile; an entire university can
then be "meshed" together and can share a single internet connection. </p></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<p> At maximum the laptops
could also be used for scientific computing. They use the same Linux
operating system as do scientific workstations and can run the standard
open-source software used for scientific programming and publishing
(e.g. Python, TeX). The laptops have relatively small data storage and
memory (128 MB), but are sufficient for most programming courses and
can be upgraded for more substantial data analysis. </p>
<a name="curriculum"></a>
<table align="center">
<tbody><tr>
<td width="140"><hr class="H4"></td><td width="10"> <br></td>
<td> <span style="font-size: 20px;"> </span>
<h4 class="blue">Online curriculum materials</h4> </td>
<td width="10"> <br></td><td width="140"><hr class="H4"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
The students surveyed all mentioned out-dated and overly theoretical
curricula as a failing of their universities. This is a symptom of low
spending (lack of money to buy new textbooks or install laboratories)
and of isolation (professors have little access to science outside
their own graduate training). Both can be remedied given internet
connections. </p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Lecture notes and curricula.</span>
There is a growing movement in the U.S. and elsewhere to make
university-level educational materials freely available to all. A
leader in this movement is MIT with its <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html">Open Courseware</a> project,
in which professors place their lecture notes, problem sets, exams, and
even videos of lectures online for all to use, reaching 1.5 million
users each month (see also this <a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/ocw-facts.html">summary</a> and
articles from
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/ocw.html">MIT</a> and <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198000568">Information Week</a>).
All of MIT's courses will be on the web by the end of the 2007.
Other universities participating in open courseware efforts include
Tufts, Johns Hopkins, U.C. Irvine, Univ. of Notre Dame, Utah State (see
<a href="http://www.ocwconsortium.org/use/index.html">here</a>), and Yale (see <a href="http://www.careerjournal.com/myc/school/20070216-chaker.html?cjpos=home_whatsnew_major">article</a>). The <a href="http://www.oercommons.org/oer/oer-categories">
Open Educational Resources Commons</a>
also gathers university course material and videos of lectures and
demonstrations. The movement is not confined to the U.S.: Britain's
Open University, a fee-charging distance-learning university, is now
making some courses freely available (see <a href="http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/story/0,,1728283,00.html">article</a>).
</p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Textbooks.</span>
The movement to make educational materials freely available extends to
textbooks as well. Numerous authors have placed their work online for
others to use. <a href="http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page">
Wiki Books</a> includes texts on many subjects.
Individual highly-regarded textbooks
available online include the science text <a href="http://www.motionmountain.net/">Motion Mountain</a>, with 30,000 downloads a year, and others in
<a href="http://www.htdp.org/"> computer science </a>,
<a href="http://www.lightandmatter.com/area1book1.html">physics</a>, and many other subjects.
<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page">Project Gutenberg</a>
(2 million downloads a month), Google Books, and other digital library
projects are placing out-of-copyright volumes online for anyone to
read. </p>
<a name="research"></a>
<table align="center">
<tbody><tr>
<td width="150"><hr class="H4"></td><td width="10"> <br></td>
<td> <span style="font-size: 20px;"> </span>
<h4 class="blue">Research journal access</h4> </td>
<td width="10"> <br></td><td width="150"><hr class="H4"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<a name="research"></a>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Economics of science publishing.</span>
Internet access and open courseware can be a great asset for African
universities, but cannot alone fully connect African universities to
the international scientific community. African universities would
still lack access to the journals in which essentially all of academic
research is published. </p>
<table>
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top">
<p class="bodyleft">
The largest item in a university library budget is no longer books but
rather subscriptions to these journals. For a serious research
university, annual subscription costs are now in the millions: MIT paid
$4 million in 2006 for science and engineering journals alone. These
costs, and their steep rise (a 150% increase in the last 10 years) are
a source of concern throughout the academic world. (See articles from <a href="http://www.brown.edu/Administration/George_Street_Journal/vol24/24GSJ19c.html">Brown University</a> and <a href="http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA516819.html">
Library Journal</a>).
The rise is not due to publishers' expenses. In 2004 the private
journal publisher Elsevier reported profits of nearly $900 million (and
spent $2.8 million lobbying the U.S. Congress). U.S. universities are
cutting back on
subscriptions (e.g. <a href="http://www.libraryjournal.com/clear/CA6314773.html#news2">Florida</a> and
<a href="http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2004/2/6/facSenDiscussesJournalFees">Stanford</a>; see also this <a href="http://www.createchange.org/archive/librarians/issues/silent.html">review</a>).
Developing-world universities cannot afford access at all. If African
researchers do publish in international journals, they cannot access
even their own published work.
(Note that U.S. taxpayers are in the same position, unable to read the
research results their taxes have paid for.) </p>
</td>
<td valign="center">
<p class="figure-r">
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_journals.jpg'
,'','width=420,height=520,resizable=yes')" title=""><img src="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/images/Online_journals_200.jpg" alt="A subscription for a single research journal in certain fields can cost more than total educational costs for six African undergraduates. Image from the U. of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library." border="0">
</a></p>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_journals.jpg'
,'','width=420,height=520,resizable=yes')" title=""> </a><p class="figcap-l" style="margin-bottom: 0px;"><a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_journals.jpg'
,'','width=420,height=520,resizable=yes')" title="">$14,000/yr for a single journal</a></p><p class="figcap-l">more <a href="http://astech.library.cornell.edu/ast/engr/about/car.cfm">here</a> and <a href="http://www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/information/news/exhibits/money/index.html">
here</a></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
<span class="headtext">How can access be opened?</span>
One possibility is to persuade publishers to make journals available at
low or no cost to developing-world universities. The UN has begun an
archive for agricultural research (<a href="http://www.aginternetwork.org/en/">AGORA</a>), and the WHO sponsors a similar archive for health studies (<a href="http://www.who.int/hinari/en/">HINARI</a>). (See <a href="http://www.udsm.ac.tz/library/ejournal.html">
here</a>
for e-resources at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; note
their use of AGORA). Some individual publishers have also taken
independent steps to open access (see article about the <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/84/8420sci1.html">Royal Society for Chemistry</a>).
But a broader and simpler strategy is to pass legislation mandating
that all federally funded research results must be placed in publicly
accessible archives. The
<a href="http://cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=record&lid=1&rid=237171">
Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006</a> (Cornyn & Lieberman), introduced in the 109th Congress,
would have required this (see also this <a href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/frpaa/frpaafaq.html">summary</a>).
This legislation would force a reshaping of the publishing world that
would have widespread support from libraries, universities in both the <a href="http://www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/frpaa/institutions.html">U.S.</a>
and developing world, and scientists themselves. Most people agree that
the current system must change, but individual scientists feel
constrained to publish in prestigious existing journals and publishers
have no incentive to release copyright on their articles. U.S.
legislation can break this logjam. Open research access is supported by
many groups, including the <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/godort/godortresolutions/20060626308.htm">American Library Association</a> and the <a href="http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/frpaa/">Alliance for Taxpayer Access</a>
.
</p>
<a name="internet"></a>
<table align="center">
<tbody><tr>
<td width="165"><hr class="H4"></td><td width="10"> <br></td>
<td> <span style="font-size: 20px;"> </span>
<h4 class="blue">Internet connectivity</h4> </td>
<td width="10"> <br></td><td width="165"><hr class="H4"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
The proposals above for strengthening African universities with online
knowledge depend on being able to actually access that knowledge. That
would not have been possible a decade ago: the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS) found in 1999 that students could not
download research articles from a number of African universities
because data transfer rates were so slow that connections were dropped
(see <a href="http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/oljreport/index.shtml">report</a>). In 2007, using online resources in sub-Saharan Africa is a possibility. Still, serious challenges remain.
</p>
<table>
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top">
<p class="bodyleft">
<span class="headtext">Explosion of demand for internet connectivity.</span>
Internet access is now possible in all African countries and demand is
growing from all sections of society. The change is recent and steep.
In 1996 no countries in sub-Saharan Africa other than South Africa and
Namibia had connections faster than 64Kbps (still painfully slow to
U.S. users accustomed to a hundred times that), and many had none at
all. By 2001 the entire continent had reasonable connectivity and the
total number of internet users was estimated as 5-8 million (see <a href="http://www3.sn.apc.org/africa/afrmain.htm">here</a>). By 2007, users in sub-Saharan Africa had grown fivefold to 33 million, nearly 4% of the population. (See these
<a href="http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm">data</a>; growth is some 30% per year).
Many African universities now maintain websites (see <a href="http://www-sul.stanford.edu/africa/africaneducation/african-universities.html">here</a>).
The internet cafe is a ubiquitous feature of African cities, along with
the storefront computer training school. Demand for access is high
outside major cities as well: see these articles by a local
entrepreneur starting an internet cafe in rural Kenya (<a href="http://startupkenya.blogspot.com/2007/01/internet-in-village.html">1</a><a href="http://startupkenya.blogspot.com/2007/01/laying-groundwork-for-rural-cyber.html">
2</a><a> </a><a href="http://startupkenya.blogspot.com/2007/02/cyber-cafe-with-edge.html">3</a>).
Maasai students in Tanzania have begun applying to university, because
the internet allows the first to enter a way to send information home
to others. </p></td>
<td valign="center">
<p class="figure-r">
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_InternetAfrica.gif'
,'','width=500,height=660,resizable=yes')" title=""><img src="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/images/Online_InternetAfrica_250.gif" alt="Internet use in Africa, 2007, and growth in usage from 1997-2007 (New York Times, data from World Bank, Miniwatts Marketing Group)" border="0">
</a></p>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_InternetAfrica.gif'
,'','width=500,height=660,resizable=yes')" title=""> </a><p class="figcap-r"><a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_InternetAfrica.gif'
,'','width=500,height=660,resizable=yes')" title="">
Growth of internet in Africa </a> <br> (NYT, from 2007 World Bank data)<br>
NYT article: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22rwanda.html">(link)</a> <a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/NYT_AfricaOffline.pdf">(pdf)</a> </p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
<span class="headtext">High costs.</span>
The most remarkable aspect of the rising demand for internet
connections in sub-Saharan Africa is that
it is occurring despite the the highest connection costs in the world.
The African consumer (or university) pays 50-500 times more than an
American for an equivalent connection (e.g. $3,000/month instead of
$30/month for a 1 Mbps connection; prices vary by country). African
universities therefore cannot afford the bandwidth they need to make
efficient use of online resources. The average African university, with
tens of thousands of students and faculty, has the same aggregate
bandwidth as a single household connection in the U.S. (see <a href="http://www.idrc.ca/es/ev-84498-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html">article</a> or this <a href="http://www.foundation-partnership.org/pubs/bandwidth/index.php?chap=chap2&sub=c2c">
study</a> by the <a href="http://www.foundation-partnership.org/index.php?sub=about">Partnership for Higher Education in Africa</a>).
The principal reason for high costs is the lack of optical fiber infrastructure (discussed below).
</p>
<table>
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="top">
<p class="bodyleft">
<span class="headtext">Low capacity.</span>
High costs unfortunately go hand in hand with low capacity. Sub-Saharan
Africa currently has the lowest data transmission bandwidth in the
world (below even the steppes of Central Asia) and is falling further
behind: its capacity is growing more slowly than in any other region. A
2006 report by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
states: "Bandwidth is the life-blood of the world's knowledge economy,
but it is scarcest where it is most needed ..." The report also
concludes that sub-Saharan Africa has the world's "highest unmet demand
for telecommunication services". (See report <a href="http://www.africafocus.org/docs06/apc0612.php">summary</a> or full <a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/open_access_EN.pdf">pdf</a>).
</p></td>
<td valign="center">
<p class="figure-r">
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_thruput.jpg'
,'','width=580,height=440,resizable=yes')" title=""><img src="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/images/Online_thruput_300.jpg" alt="Africa has the world's lowest internet bandwidth (data througput) to North America, and its capacity is growing more slowly than in any other region: the continent is behind and falling further behind.
(Figure from the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) Standing Committee on Inter-Regional Connectivity (SCIC), Jan. 2006" border="0">
</a></p>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_thruput.jpg'
,'','width=580,height=440,resizable=yes')" title=""> </a><p class="figcap-r"><a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_thruput.jpg'
,'','width=580,height=440,resizable=yes')" title=""> Internet capacity worldwide </a></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Optical fiber links</span>. Optical fiber
infrastructure is the cheapest and most efficient way of transferring
data. Only 14 of 49 sub-Saharan countries have any fiber connection to
each other or to the rest of the world (NEPAD, 2004). The remainder
must use expensive satellite or radio connections. A single cable runs
along the West coast of Africa. Few overland networks penetrate the
interior, and East Africa is completely isolated.
</p>
<table>
<tbody><tr>
<td valign="center">
<p class="figure-l">
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_cablemap.jpg'
,'','width=650,height=500,resizable=yes')" title=""><img src="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/images/Online_cablemap_300.jpg" alt="Submarine optical fiber cables around the world. Color of cable denotes bandwidth. Note how poorly Africa is connected, and the total absence of cables to East Africa" border="0">
</a></p>
<a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_cablemap.jpg'
,'','width=650,height=500,resizable=yes')" title=""> </a><p class="figcap-l"><a href="javascript:;" onclick="MM_openBrWindow('images/Online_cablemap.jpg'
,'','width=650,height=500,resizable=yes')" title="">World submarine optical cables </a></p>
</td>
<td valign="top">
<p class="bodyright" style="margin-left: 20px;">
Absence of a $200 million investment in an East African cable is likely
hurting local economies many times over. Interest in building such a
cable has however risen in recent years. The first proposal, made in
2002, would be funded by a consortium of private operators (the East
African Submarine System, or EASSy). As of July 2007 four separate
proposals for East African submarine cables are in play; the
expectation is that one will succeed. (See
<a href="http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5059738&als%5BMYALIAS6%5D=Fibre:%20Questions%20need%20answering&als%5Bselect%5D=%3Cdiv%3ENo%20item%20found%3C/div%3E">article</a>
from Fibre for Africa). Only one of these proposals is based on an
open-access model. No international donors have offered majority
funding to date. </p></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>
Lack of guaranteed open access is a concern because a single cable
operated as a private monopoly will not generally reduce costs for the
consumer. Although West Africa is now linked to Europe by optical fiber
(the SAT-3 cable), communications costs there are generally no lower
than via satellite. In the absence of strong regulatory agencies, the
consortium of investors who funded the cable have kept bandwidth costs
prohibitively high. The SAT-3 pricing strategy has been termed "high
cost, low volume": bandwidth is sold for $4500-$12,000 per Mbps/month
and the cable is underutilized. (Prices differ by country; the
$4500/month figure was obtained only after a 2-year court fight in
Ghana). Even the low Ghana price is 20 times higher than could be
offered by a non-profit cable (less than $250 per Mbps/month, estimate
by Eric Osiakwan of the <a href="http://www.afrispa.org/">African Internet Service Providers Association</a>).
The original SAT-3 operating licenses expired in June 2007 and are
being renegotiated, possibly opening an opportunity to drop
communications costs for W. Africa. (See <a href="http://www.cipaco.org/spip.php?article903"> article </a> and <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/eric/2006/11/07/open-access-sat3/"> commentary </a>). The <a href="http://www.aau.org/index.htm">
Association of African Universities </a> has pleaded for, if nothing else, special rates for universities (see <a href="http://www.scidev.net/content/news/eng/scholars-call-for-communications-cable-access.cfm"> article</a>
).</p>
<p>
Note that predatory pricing by the SAT-3 monopoly consortium is not a
purely African problem. Although many of the SAT-3 consortium members
are African telecoms, the three largest investors were non-African: in
order of stake, TCI (at that time a subsidiary of AT&T) + AT&T
itself (U.S.A.), France Telecom (France), and VSL (India/Singapore).
The U.S. stake in the cable may now have passed to Comcast. (<a href="http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?x=5039398&als%5BMYALIAS6%5D=SAT3%20consortium%20contract%20emerges&als%5Bselect%5D=4887798">SAT-3 ownership
</a> information is carefully guarded).
</p><p>
The E. African cable proposals, also consortium operated, have
raised similar concerns about monopolistic pricing
(see commentary
<a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/RichardBell_EASSy.pdf">here</a>,
and <a href="http://www.ralden.com/C1/EASSy/default.aspx">here</a>, analysis by the <a href="http://fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?conds%5B0%5D%5Bcategory........%5D=%27Why%20we%20need%20affordable%20international%20bandwidth%27&als%5Bselect%5D=4051582&als%5BMYALIAS6%5D=Why%20we%20need%20affordable%20international%20bandwidth">
APC</a>, and the
<a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/open_access_EN.pdf">APC report</a> mentioned above). (EASSy <a href="http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_359.html#internet">consortium members
</a>
include AT&T (USA), Verizon/ex MCI (USA), France Telecom, BT (UK),
Saudi Telecom, VSNL/Teleglobe (India), and Etisalat (United Arab
Emirates), as well as 29 public and private Africa-based telecoms). A
single East African cable operated on the SAT-3 model would yield no
price benefits for E. African consumers, would provide minimal economic
benefits and would leave E. African universities isolated. Either
multiple competing cables or regulated or non-profit operation are
necessary to lower costs for African internet users. </p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.fibreforafrica.net/main.shtml?conds%5B0%5D%5Bcategory........%5D=%27News%27&sort%5B0%5D%5Bstart_date......%5D=d&als%5Bselect%5D=4887798&als%5BMYALIAS6%5D=News"> Updates</a>
on both SAT-3 and E. African cables are posted by Fibre for Africa. The
subject is also frequently covered in the online newsletter <a href="http://www.balancingact-africa.com/"> Balancing Act</a> which reports on telecoms and internet in Africa.
</p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Reverse Subsidies.</span>
An additional factor raising connectivity costs for Africa is a
perverse pricing structure in which
African users subsidize all data transfers to and from the continent.
(Imagine that you paid telephone charges on both incoming and outgoing
phone calls, while your neighbor paid for neither). These charges alone
nearly double the cost of African internet usage, costing Africa
between $250-500 million/yr. They also further entrench the stalemate:
the African market remains small, investment in infrastructure is
discouraged, and the companies that provide international bandwidth
(IBPs) can continue to insist on predatory pricing arrangements. </p>
<p>
Why does international connection cost matter so much to local users
within Africa? Because
the lack of optical fiber lines and local data aggregation points means
that even traffic within Africa is typically routed through Europe.
An email sent from the Central African Republic to nearby Kenya, for
example, is routed through London via two satellite connections. One
means of remedying the pricing inequity is an international trade
agreement. Another is
to build up local land-based networks and regional aggregation points
to reduce the need of European connections in the first place.
Aggregation also pushes the international providers to come to Africa
instead, after which they would bear connection costs equally. </p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Current actions.</span>
Many governments in Africa are now planning and building infrastructure
to reduce the need for intercontinental traffic. East African countries
have been most aggressive in pursuit of this goal, with Rwanda as the
strongest leader. Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda are all constructing inland
optical fiber backbones (Uganda with funding from the Chinese
government).
Tanzania is at least in the planning stage (see report <a href="http://www.arp.harvard.edu/AfricaHigherEducation/Reports/OpticalFibre.pdf">"Optical Fibre for Education and Research Networks in Eastern and Southern Africa"
</a>). <a href="http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/ev-87391-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html"> Connectivity Africa</a>,
sponsored by Canada's International Development Research Center, has
also done preliminary work on aggregation in six countries (South
Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania). A coalition
of African Internet Service Providers has proposed a broad outline for
regional aggregation and cost reductions (the
<a href="http://www.afrispa.org/Initiatives.htm">"Halfway Proposition"</a>).
And the United Nations and the Rwandan government are sponsoring a
telecommunications conference in Kigali in October 2007 to bring
together African governments, businesses, and global telecommunications
firms to discuss infrastructure and regulatory changes to boost
connectivity (<a href="http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/connect/africa/2007/summit/index.html">"Connect Africa"</a>).
Note however that all of these efforts still depend on construction of
an East African submarine cable. It is difficult to orchestrate any
solution to Africa's connectivity problems if the continent remains
digitally isolated. </p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Additional factors for universities in particular.</span>
One additional factor in connectivity costs that may affect African
universities in particular is lack of capital to buy equipment that
would result in eventual savings. A <a href="http://www.aaas.org/international/africa/oljreport/recs.shtml">AAAS study</a>
of connectivity in African universities in 1999 found, for example,
that Makerere University in Uganda paid steep monthly phone bills for a
dialup connection because they could not afford a one-time cost of
$18,000 for a radio link. These kind of situations may or may not exist
in 2007. </p>
<p>
<span class="headtext">Helping universities in Africa.</span> Several organizations work with African universities to help use existing bandwidth more effectively.
The U.K. <a href="http://www.inasp.info/programmes/"> International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications</a>
works with African university libraries. The <a href="http://www.widernet.org/digitalLibrary/index.htm">eGranary Digital Library project</a>
places widely used free academic materials on local servers in African
universities so that they can be accessed with only a local connection.
</p>
<p> Many organizations are working to lower bandwidth costs for
universities and increase capacity. Several countries in Africa have
formed National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) seeking
high-speed and affordable connections for universities, and have
organized as the <a href="http://www.ubuntunet.net/">UbuntuNet Alliance</a>.
(Participating nations are Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and South
Africa). The target goal is university connections equivalent to those
of the developed world: 1 Gbps or more. The <a href="http://www.foundation-partnership.org/index.php?sub=about">Partnership for Higher Education in Africa</a>
(including the Ford, MacArthur, and Rockefeller Foundations) has helped
a consortium of 13 African universities to lower connectivity costs.
The Partnership has
<a href="http://www.fordfound.org/news/view_news_detail.cfm?news_index=155">donated over $5 million </a> to make satellite bandwidth available to the consortium at $2330 per Mbps/month instead of $7300 (see also <a href="http://www.foundation-partnership.org/index.php?sub=pr&pr=2">
here</a>).
This effort will be welcomed by students and researchers. It is not a
long-term solution, however, and some local connectivity activists
argue that giving subsidies to foreign satellite firms actually hinders
long-term solutions. Even with the Partnership's support, universities
would pay over $1800/month for the same household-scale connection that
Verizon advertises in the U.S. with an introductory rate of
$9.99/month.
Purchasing the bandwidth of a normal U.S. university (1 Gbps, the
UbuntuNet target) would cost an unaffordable $2.3 million/month. The
digital divide will ultimately be bridged only with optical fiber, and
those investments are large in scale. <br><br>
</p>
<p>
<span style="font-style: italic;">
Last update: July 23, 2007
</span>
</p><br>-- <br>Anne-Rachel Inne