[p2p-research] Developing countries falling into 'broadband gap'

[Ryan Lanham]

Is there such a thing as open source broadband hardware?

Ryan

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 11:45 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> From: plenary-bounces at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-bounces at wsis-cs.org] On
> Behalf Of Michel Towa koh
> Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:23 AM
> To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
> Cc: list-reseauafricanet at list.reseauafricanet.org;
> acsis_cameroun at yahoogroupes.fr
> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] 'broadband gap'
>
>
>
>
> Developing countries falling into 'broadband gap'
> Ola Al-Ghazawy
> 29 octobre 2009 | EN
>
> Much of the developing world is falling behind with broadband access
> Flickr/abbesses
> [CAIRO] Limited access to broadband Internet is crippling the spread of
> information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the developing world
> and widening the already significant digital divide, a report has warned.
> Bandwidth availability is low and the cost of broadband Internet is high in
> many developing countries, says 'Information Economy Report 2009', released
> last week (22 October) by the UN Conference on Trade and Development
> (UNCTAD).
> Prices can reach more than US$1,000 per month in countries such as Burkina
> Faso and Kazakhstan. Australia, a country with little more than 20 million
> residents, has more broadband users than the whole of the African continent.
> This broadband gap deprives developing country businesses of economic
> development opportunities such as call centres and offshore offices.
> "Broadband access is almost a must for companies with international
> branches," Ahmed Ali, a software engineer at computing giant IBM's Egypt
> branch, told SciDev.Net.
> While major companies such as his use a satellite Internet connection,
> smaller companies that provide offshore services for businesses in other
> regions need a fast communication channel.
> "If broadband is not sufficient then it will be a problem for them and may
> hinder progress of their work," he says.
> But the mobile phone market is booming in the developing world despite the
> economic crisis, the report found. Mobile phone penetration reached 100 per
> cent in countries such as Bahrain, South Africa and Qatar. Growth in mobile
> use increased more than eightfold in less than ten years.
> Mobiles are becoming the preferred mode of communication over landlines and
> are increasingly fulfilling ICT needs.
> "We now see three and four mobile service providers opening up in these
> countries to fill demand. For many people, it is becoming an important tool
> for business as well as accessing the Internet," Ahmed Momtaz, a
> telecommunication engineer at Vodafone Egypt, told SciDev.Net.
> The report suggests governments can work with Internet providers to narrow
> the broadband gap by
> promoting competition to bring down prices and the sharing of
> infrastructure to reduce costs by preventing duplicate efforts. Governments
> can also promote Internet centres to offer access to people in poorer
> regions.
> The UNCTAD report also calls for the expansion of underwater fibre optics
> network, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
>
> --
> Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
> http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>
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-- 
Ryan Lanham
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