Digital Divide
25 August 2010
Mobile-Phone Farming in India Wall Street Journal
Which pesticide will protect my crops? It's a question most farmers in insect-ridden rural India ask themselves or their neighbors. But it's also a question to which very few have the correct answer.
21 June 2010
Business Deal to Put Africa On the Cloud MediaGlobal
The average American waits less than a second for Google to respond to a search query. In most of Africa, it takes three seconds to do the same thing. This two-second difference may not seem a drastic, but such a delay typifies the gap between Internet use in Africa and other parts of the world.
06 June 2010
Road map set for global development of telecommunications and ICT; Hyderabad Action Plan agreed at ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference International Telecommunications Union
The Hyderabad Action Plan adopted today by the ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference outlined a road map to foster the global development of information and communication technology (ICT) networks and services over the next four year cycle. The roll out of next-generation networks (NGN) and increased access to broadband services, wireless technologies and the Internet were recognized as catalysts to achieve the broader development goals.
UN rolls out action plan to expand global broadband access United Nations
The United Nations telecommunications agency's quadrennial development conference wrapped up today with participants adopting a plan of action to promote the global development of information and communication technology (ICT) networks and services.
26 May 2010
ITU calls for broadband Internet access for half the world's population by 2015 International Telecommunications Union
ITU's World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2010 was launched today at the World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-10), which is currently meeting in Hyderabad. The report provides a mid-term review of the progress made in creating a global information society by 2015, a commitment that governments agreed upon at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which took place in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005.
Mobile technology leads to connectivity revolution
30 April 2010
One Laptop per Child targets East Africa BBC News
The group behind the "$100 laptop" has signed a deal which it hopes will deliver low cost computers to every primary school child in East Africa.
29 April 2010
Indonesian Govt Pledges to Address Inequality in internet Access Jakarta Globe
Addressing criticism that parts of the nation were being left behind by a growing information technology gap, the government on Wednesday vowed to provide cheaper and more widespread Internet access.
13 April 2010
Without 'Real' Electricity, Forget ICT East African
The biggest enabler of ICT, outside of having the money to access the services offered, is the presence of a reliable electricity supply.
01 April 2010
Joy as computer power comes to Yirrkala in Australia's ArnhemLand The Australian
The dream first took form eight years ago when an American scientist imagined a world where every child in every country had a laptop computer.
28 March 2010
Rwanda's laptop revolution The Observer
Rwanda has a plan to prevent any return to the genocide of 1994: connect 100,000 children to the outside world with their own laptops
21 March 2010
Cost of African Telecoms, Internet to Go Down Daily News
The cost of international telecommunications and internet connectivity is expected to drop significantly next July, this year, after the East African sub marine cable system (EASSY) becomes available.
Low Internet Usage the Bane of Africa's Digital Media Sunday Nation
Africa has the lowest number of internet users in the world, a problem that has prevented its inhabitants from enjoying the benefits of digital media.
19 March 2010
Nigerian web first-timers long to be 'part of the world' BBC News
The world has become smaller. The connections established by e-mail and websites have significantly shortened the distances between people. We can live in London and shop in Johannesburg; we can be based in Brussels and run a business out of Bombay.
05 February 2010
Bridging the Digital Divide Will Help Shield Africa From External Shocks Business Daily
Twelve months ago, the economic clouds were dark and prospects gloomy. As a result of the crisis at the epicentres of the global economy, demand for and prices of our exports, especially mineral products, were falling.
Mobile phone the new driver of Kenya's Internet access Business Daily
Government services offered online and growing mobile phone access will be the key drivers of mass internet adoption in the country, say industry experts and a national survey.
28 December 2009
Rwanda's laptop revolution - upgrading the children: A pioneering scheme to computerise a whole people The Economist
Tiny, landlocked Rwanda is sometimes touted as Africa's high-tech economy. It is still a bit early for that, however. Neighbouring Uganda produces far more computer-science graduates. Countries such as Nigeria and Kenya are even further ahead. South Africa is out of sight. But technology is the core of Rwanda's plan to transform its economy by 2020. The country seems ready to back its ambition with money and policies.
16 November 2009
High-speed Internet gap between rich and poor widening, UN official warns United Nations
[news release] While the "digital divide" between rich and poor countries may be shrinking overall, the gap is widening between the developed and developing worlds in the availability of broadband or high-speed Internet, a crucial tool for achieving economic and social goals, a top United Nations official said today.
01 November 2009
Opening a window of education: One Laptop per Child for Aboriginal Australia The Australian
It is Rangan Srikhanta's favourite party trick and it never fails to arouse gasps of astonishment from wide-eyed schoolchildren. Holding a green and white laptop computer in his hands, the Australian executive director of the charity One Laptop per Child flings the small machine across a room.
24 October 2009
Developing countries must boost broadband: U.N. Reuters
Developing countries risk missing out on the benefits of information technology because of their lack of broadband infrastructure, a U.N. agency said, reports Reuters.
23 October 2009
Africa calling: mobile phone usage sees record rise after huge investment The Guardian
Africans are buying mobile phones at a world record rate, with take-up soaring by 550% in five years, research shows.
08 October 2009
World Bank to help develop high-speed Internet in Africa The Age
The World Bank said on Tuesday it would invest US$215 million (€146 million) to help develop high-speed Internet infrastructure in central Africa and make the service more accessible to people in the region.
07 October 2009
In Rural Africa, a Fertile Market for Mobile Phones New York Times
Laban Rutagumirwa charges his mobile phone with a car battery because his dirt-floor home deep in the remote, banana-covered hills of western Uganda does not have electricity.
26 September 2009
A special report on telecoms in emerging markets: mobile marvels - poor countries have already benefited hugely from mobile phones The Economist
Bouncing a great-grandchild on her knee in her house in Bukaweka, a village in eastern Uganda, Mary Wokhwale gestures at her surroundings. "My mobile phone has been my livelihood," she says. In 2003 Ms Wokhwale was one of the first 15 women in Uganda to become "village phone" operators. Thanks to a microfinance loan, she was able to buy a basic handset and a roof-mounted antenna to ensure a reliable signal. She went into business selling phone calls to other villagers, making a small profit on each call. This enabled her to pay back her loan and buy a second phone. The income from selling phone calls subsequently enabled her to set up a business selling beer, open a music and video shop and help members of her family pay their children's school fees. Business has dropped off somewhat in the past couple of years as mobile phones have fallen in price and many people in her village can afford their own. But Ms Wokhwale's life has been transformed.
The power of mobile money - mobile phones have transformed lives in the poor world. Mobile money could have just as big an impact The Economist
Once the toys of rich yuppies, mobile phones have evolved in a few short years to become tools of economic empowerment for the world's poorest people. These phones compensate for inadequate infrastructure, such as bad roads and slow postal services, allowing information to move more freely, making markets more efficient and unleashing entrepreneurship. All this has a direct impact on economic growth: an extra ten phones per 100 people in a typical developing country boosts GDP growth by 0.8 percentage points, according to the World Bank. More than 4 billion handsets are now in use worldwide, three-quarters of them in the developing world. Even in Africa, four in ten people now have a mobile phone.
16 September 2009
New Africa broadband link 'ready' BBC News
A new high-speed undersea cable connecting East Africa with the rest of the world is poised to go live, Kenya's top internet official has told the BBC.
