Introduction
Today, in the developed world the broadband internet connection is taken for granted and people cannot imagine their lives without it. The internet is used for literally everything from communicating to making one-click decisions. The global has brought about revolutionary changes to the patterns of global development. While 40 years ago, the biggest corporations as well as globally respected institutions were in the driving seat of mankind’s development, now bold ideas of individuals are revolutionizing our lives. The new technology, especially the internet, has empowered every one of us, yet large swaths of the population still are not able to enjoy these innovations.
The most critical situation is in Africa. Amidst other challenges the governments of African nations face, the issue of connectivity may not be considered a critical one and laid off to fight hunger, poverty and security threats. Indeed, all these problems are intertwined, that without providing internet for the entire population of African continent, every socioeconomic issue will be an insurmountable challenge for every member of the African Union.
It is also worth mentioning that the availability of the internet in every African neighborhood will not just implicate the outreach of social media, but it will also lead to revolutionary improvement of local infrastructure. This will mean that more power plants, grids, electricity lines will be erected and millions of people will be given chance to get access to education. And these improvements give birth to new Africa.
It is imperative that the global community finds the best way to connect African nations, as information communication technologies (ICT) are currently one of the powerhouses of the global development and innovation, alongside alternative energy and genetic technologies.
Background information
A relatively young but progressive industry, Internet has covered all surface of our planet. However, like with every innovation, not all countries developed this innovation equally. Africa, in particular Sub-Saharan, lacks full access to the WorldWideWeb. The tendency for Africa was skipping landlines and branch banking used for traditional connectivity. Africa moved straight to cellular telephony and mobile money. Consequently, not everyone had even electricity but few people were acquiring wireless connections. But let us first look back at the development of the internet on the continent.
In 1980, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa created PADIS (Pan African Development Information System). Its objective was to promote development of information systems and management. It was necessary to help African states to first build constructions for storage, utilization of data, also to advice and train people operating in the brand-new sphere. Nancy Hafkin was appointed to lead the PADIS. Under her supervision, about 10 African states enabled working email connections.
In 1988, Mike Lawrie and his team at Rhodes University ran the first Internet networking in South Africa. At the same time, Randy Bush launched the Network Startup Resource Center, which had been helping to develop and deploy networking technology. Then, PADIS started its project linking 18 African institutions to a FidoNet-based network, which provided international e-mail access. The program proved to be successful, resulting in new larger project funded by International Development Research Centre named, “Building Capacities for Electronic Communication in Africa”. Its goal was to expand number of countries having access to electronic networks. Meanwhile, Network Startup Resource Center already adopted services for technical assistance, training, documentation and hardware.
A real breakthrough was establishing a dial-up connection from Africa to France. It enabled approximately 1000 users connect to the internet through 25 hosts. It was a stepping stone for Africa to enter the cyber world. From that point, many investment projects were launched, for instance, African Development Bank invested $440m in telecommunications infrastructure in Africa, U.S. committed $15m for the LELAND initiative, which was aiming enlarge Internet connectivity in 20 sub-Saharan countries.
By 1998, 0.4 per cent from all the population had access to internet in Africa. A major step forward was building undersea fibre optic cables. In 2002, SAT-3/WASC (South Atlantic 3/ West Africa Submarine Cable) was introduced. It was the alternative to the previous cable routes, also providing larger capacity and speed. It starts in Portugal and Spain then forming a single cable to South Africa, with stops in several West African states. The prices for the SAT-3 bandwidth were 50 times greater than in the U.S. During the next few years, IP addresses were given for the African region. By that time, Africa’s part in the total internet capacity was about 0.2 per cent.
From 2002 to 2005 there were more investments which resulted in rapid growth of internet users in Africa. 10.3 per cent were reported to be involved in interacting with internet. However, the prices were still unaffordable for some social groups. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one would pay $50 a month for access to internet. In East Africa, basic 256 Kbps broadband connection would cost $250 per month. Despite that, the internet penetration increased, about 21 per cent had an internet connection.
A non-profit organization called UbuntuNet was established by five emerging National research and education networks (NRENs): MAREN (Malawi), MoRENet (Mozambique), KENET (Kenya), RwEdNet (Rwanda) and TENET (South Africa). The main objectives of the Alliance are to secure high speed and priceworthy internet connectivity for the African research and education community1. Since then it has been operating in the area having a great impact on the development of information and communication technologies.
In 2008, the first satellite fully dedicated to the African continent was launched. More actions occurred on the ground, or undersea to be precise. The Pan-African e-Network project was initiated by India and the African Union to connect 53 member states via the abovementioned satellite and the number of new fibre-optic submarine cables. Also, the goal of the accord was to further exchange the experience on information and communications technology. New submarine cables were connecting Egypt, India, South Africa (cable – Seacom/Tata TGN Eurasia); UAE and Kenya (The East African Marine System); Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Tanzania, South Africa (Eastern Africa Submarine System). All of them were built in 2009-2010.
In 2012, the number of users reached 40 million users. UbuntuNet’s High-speed program was launched the same year and immediately connected 8,000 institutions. 3 more submarine cables were passed as well, among them 17,000 km long fibre cable named African Coast to Europe. This cable beginning in France connects all the states of the West coast of Africa until South Africa. Another cable from the UK connects fewer states but goes all along the West coast and ends in South Africa as well as the African Coast to Europe.
In the whole African continent, Internet growth from 2000 to 2017 is 7,722%2. Even though the growth has been rapid, many African states were not involved in this process.