ISSUE NO 17

COMING SOON: THE INTERNET IN MALI AND HOW SOUTH AFRICA'S WOZA SITE HAS GROWN

NEWS UPDATE 17.1 - ETHIOPIA: CUSTOMERS IN A QUEUE TO GET ACCESS TO THE INTERNET

Ethiopia has one of the lowest teledensities in the world and existing internet subscribers number in the low thousands. Although the subscriber base is small, the problem is one of supply rather than demand. The government-owned telco , Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) has a waiting list for connections. Abebe Chekol looks at how the Ethiopian internet has developed and how capacity will grow in the coming period.

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ETHIOPIA: CUSTOMERS QUEUE TO GET ACCESS TO THE INTERNET

Ethiopia covering a massive area (1,127,127 km2) and has a widely distributed population (of over 64.9 million people) of whom 80% live in rural areas. It is one of the poorest and least developed country in the world. Its economy is based on agriculture, which accounts for more thanhalf of GDP, 90% of exports, and 80% of total employment; coffee generates 60% of export earnings. In such an unpromising context, how has the internet developed?

Ethiopia's telephone network has over 192,806 connected lines (June 1999), giving a telephone density of 0.26 line per hundred population, one of the lowest in the world. In general, the telecommunications infrastructure is highly skewed to the urban areas (more than 95% of the total lines), and the capital city Addis Ababa accounts for over 60% of all lines. According tothe the Government owned telco ETC, over 650 villages in the rural area will be connected to the network by installing 470 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT) and 270 Digital Radio Multi Access Subscriber Systems (DRMAS).

ETC introduced its first domestic connection to the internet in January 1997. This had a capacity of 5,000 clients and currently, ETC operates a 512 Kbps connection to the US via Global One servicing about 2,460 users. With a recently added 128 modems, the current 224 modems available to ETC will have a capacity to service 3,000 users, based on a ratio of one modem to 13 users. There are about 1,780 potential users on ETC's waiting list. The distribution of internet subscribers throughout the country is also highly skewed to the capital and subscribers outside of Addis Ababa accounts for about 6% the total internet subscribers. So at present, the internet simply does not reach rural areas at any serious level.

The quality of the phone service is very poor. The dial-up service is often busy, and of the very limited number of leased lines (currently 5) available, four have been made available to government organisations and UNECA. ETC has been receiving requests (so far about 30) for leased line and is working on a 'policy guideline' which will define the tariff and the procedures for allocating leased lines. Obtaining a subdomain under the .et top-level domain is not possible at this stage in until ETC implements its planned infrastructure developments.

There is an ongoing project with the UNDP with a funding of US$600,000 and a government contribution of US$700,000 to establish 8 POPs in the country: 4 big POPs in Mekele, Bahir Dar, Awassa and Jimma, and 4 small ones in Dessie, Gondar, Lekemte and Dire Dawa. The technical specification and agreement to increase the already available bandwidth of 512 Kbps by an additional 1 megabyte has been completed and will be operational in two months time. There is a plan to further increase to 2 megabytes in near future.

ETC has five subscriber categories:

1. two types of individual subscription

2. international NGOs, embassies and the business sector

3. public educational, health and agriculture sectors

4. all non-profit organisations.

Connection fees vary from US$56 for the not-for-profits and one type of individual subscribher to US$113 for those in category 2 above. The monthly connection fee varies between US$4 and US$75 on the same categories. The charge rate per hour is skewed to allow the lowest rates to categories 3 and 4 (US$2 per hour) but free online hours vary between 19-40 hours.

The leased line fee set in the ETC's Internet Access Application Form shows that a connection fee of US$500 and monthly fee of US$1000 for unlimited access. Optional installation/configuration fees for the dial-up and leased line services are US$20 and US$200 respectively.

In April 1999, the Council of Ministers issued regulations related to telecommunications services. The regulations defined the role of the Ethiopian Telecommunication Agency as the regulatory authority, responsible for the application for telecommunication service license, pricing and tariff of telecommunications services, and technical standards for telecommunications network. According to the newly established regulations, duration and fees, the issuance of license for Internet service is around US$12,100 for 10 years. There are plans to allow private ISPs in the country in the near future. A number of applicants to become a private ISP are queuing to receive a license.

ETC has purchased all the necessary equipment to set up a Cybercafe in its premises as well as in various locations in the capital Addis Ababa. There are a number of cybercafes in the town providing Internet browsing and e-mail services in several private computer training and dealers houses including in major hotels and organisations such as the Hilton, Chamber of Commerce and the British Council.

The first telecentre in Ethiopia has been established in February 2000 at Wolisso, a town 116 kms from Addis Ababa, by a joint project of the British Council and the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission with funding from the British Embassy. The telecentre provides communities in Wolisso with internet browsing and e-mail services including other communication

facilities such as fax and telephone. As part of the same project, there is a plan to set up another two telecentres at Debre Berhan and in Tigray in the coming three to four months.

There has been overall growth of WWW content on Ethiopia since the set up of a WWW server at ETC and through a support of local web design and host companies such as Ethiolink including the contribution of foreign based web hosting service providers such as Ethio.com (part of Legesse System Ltd in the US), CyberEthiopia and Ethiopia Online which is a web hosting service of NetNation based in Canada.

Background material

Country Profile: a theme paper of the UNECA for the ADF'99 conference in Addis Ababa, October 1999. Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation web site: http://www.telecom.net.et

Ethiopia's Content Development on the Web: Key Contributors and Sources Information about Ethiopia on the Web, Abebe Chekol, Unpublished, 2000

NETMEDIA 2000 EUROPEAN ONLINE JOURNALISM AWARDS - HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES

This week saw the presentation ceremony for the Netmedia 2000 European Online Journalism Awards. News Update attended to see how content is developing in Europe and what it might tell those involved in the internet in Africa about the about the future.

It felt like the evening was dominated by existing large information providers but in fact only 7 out of the 20 awards went to companies in this category, BBC Online scooping a deserved share of the awards. It won Best News Story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/kosovo), Best News Story broken on the net for coverage of the UK's Paddington rail crash and Best Award for its sports coverage. Those from recent internet news start-ups took comfort in the fact that they were able to compete with larger organisations like Time and Bloomberg News. Davis still seems to have some advantages over Goliath.

Almost every recipient of a prize praised their team and emphasised that producing journalism on the web could only be done by a combination of journalists, designers and programmers. Best news and design navigation went to a relative newcomer: beme.com's channel one (http://www.beme.com) who also won in the best general news presentation category.

Of particular interest to News Update readers, the Best Use of Mobile Connectivity (WAP) went to Dutch-based @Home Benelux for its coverage of the Mount Everest Expedition. The UK-based Reuters Foundation won the environmental category for the work of AlertNet. It provides an information and communication system for those responding to natural and environmental disasters.

SNIPPETS

*KENYA'S "POOR MAN'S" ISP

Wancheri.com named after the Swahili word for citizens is rawing attention with its low-price tariff.With internet connection fees usually costing about 10,000 Kenyan Shillings a month (more than $150) , Wananchi.com offers full internet access for a tenth of the price at any time of day. Its managing director, Njeri Rionge, says that cutting prices enables the company to bring the internet within reach of the common man. "That, in my view, would increase internet usage and therefore facilitate the possibility of people setting up internet cafes or internet businesses," he said. "Or the informal sector could put information about their products and services onto a website that would be designed by us, and (so) start to sell their services and products via the internet." (Source: BBC News Online, Africa)

*   AFRICA'S VC HOT-SPOTS

July's US Wired magazine carries two useful items. A map showing the progress of Africa.com with the most recent figures by country for ISP numbers, net subscribers, cell phone owners and numbers of PCs. As readers of News Update will know, these figures are fast changing but it provides a useful overview for the entire continent.

Also in the same issue a review of global venture capital hotspots globally. Predictably these are dominated by North American and European places: Africa has only 2 out of the 46 identified. So where are these lucky places? Gauteng in South Africa and El Ghazala in Tunisia. The latter has a Communications Technology Park which now houses six high tech outfits,

including software start-up Cynex and Picsoft, a consulting and systems company. Tunis' Institute of Advanced Business Studies has just launched an MBA programme in information technology and ecommerce. By contrast, Gauteng is the subject of Government-approved plans to build the Innovation Hub, a tech corridor from Johannesburg to Pretoria. A collaborative project between the University of Pretoria and CSIR, the Hub aspires to be an incubator, educational centre and administrative base for emerging and established high-tech companies.

*i-TOUCH FLOAT VALUES IT AT UK£325 MILLION

i-Touch has valued shares for its public flotation at between UK£1-£1.30, giving an overall value of £325 million. Dealings in the shares are expected to start at the end of July. Following the floatation, I-Touch will remain 50% owned by UK newspaper group Independent News and Media. The co-founders Avi Azulai and Wayne Pitout will hold 20.8% and APN Digital 4.1%. i-Touch's Non-Executive Chairman Ivan Fallon said:"We are rapidly rolling out our business model, having launched WAP portals in South Africa, Ireland, the and Ireland..." i-Touch is not expected to move into profit before 2002. The company recorded revenues of £2.1 million last year although it is believed grown rapidly from that point. (Source: UK Independent Newspaper, 7 July 2000)

*PROPOSAL FOR DEBT RELIEF BE USED TO BUILD TELECOMMS INFRASTRUCTURE

President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali told a United Nations Social and Economic Council (ECOSOC) conference on information technology that money would help bridge a growing digital divide between the world's rich and poor. "If once again African is the poor relative of the world in terms of connections, it is in terms of the cost of advanced technology where a telephone line is beyond our reach. What is preventing the narrowing of the gap today is the lack of investment,"' he added. Konare proposed a debt relief programme whereby 15 percent of a developing country's debt burden could be dedicated to building up communications infrastructure. (Source: Reuters)

USEFUL WEB SITES

*A project is under way to create maps that will help illustrate what's happening with national network development in several African countries. The link to the maps that have been done so far can be found at: http://www.nsrc.org/AFRICA/africa.html

*There's a site that provides a free 'verb conjugation' service for Swahili and Shona as well as many other world languages.  The service isn't that useful on its own but the interesting thing is that it is putting these two African languages in the 'same boat' as all the other languages it deals with. Go to: http://www.verbix.com/languages/Bantu.shtml

(Source: Cameron Smith)

*Profiles of the following organisations can be viewed at: http://www.kabissa.org/wougnet/wo_dir.html

- Akina Mama wa Afrika-Uganda (AMwA-U)

- Association of Uganda Women Medical Doctors (AUWMD)

- Council for Economic Empowerment for Women in Africa (CEEWA)

- Eastern African Sub-regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI)

- Forum for African Women Educationalists-Uganda (FAWEU)

- Hope After Rape (HAR)

- Isis-Women's International  Cross-Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE)

- National Association of Women Organisations in Uganda (NAWOU)

- Safe Motherhood Initiative in Uganda (SMIU)

- Uganda Gender Resource Center (UGRC)

- Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA)

- Uganda Private Midwives Association (UPMA)

- Uganda Women Tree Planting Movement (UWTPM)

- Women and  Children's Crisis Center (WCC)

*The Sidama Concern page provides news on Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti and EU-ACP matters. Headlines include: UN team visits Horn of Africa, Ceasefire and human rights and Djibouti-Somalia talking peace. Find in on http://www.sidamaconcern.com

*Uganda's LifeinAfrica.com has an interesting contribution from an upcoming musician just awaiting a record deal. See http://LifeInAfrica.com/microfinance/impact/30.htm

DIGITAL TOOLBOX

*CD-ROM ON A CREDIT CARD

It's about the coolest thing we've seen in a long time. A fully operating cd-rom on a credit card sized piece of plastic that can accommodate plenty of information about your organisation and be read by both PCs and macs. Imagine being able to give someone a single item weighing almost nothing that tells them all they need to know. The death of the colour brochure? We'll see... For more information, mail to: info@cdromcard.co.uk

*FLASH SITES TO VISIT

Remember our article on Flash animation? There's a hilarious online flash movie about a hacker who penetrates Microsoft and shoots up Bill G. Well. The creators of this site have now done their own Home Page http://www.kimble.org/. The person behind this effort is also a unique

character. 26-year old Kim Schmitz used to be a hacker, who got caught, then decided to apply his skills to providing system penetration testing to large corporations. Schmitz made it big time financially and now jets and parties all over Europe. But what we wanted to show you is his MegaCar project. If you ever fantasized about putting a high-speed computing facility into a Mercedes S600, this guy has actually done it. Check it out at www.dataprotect.com/presse/jpg/businessweek20000410_53.jpg (Source: JCN News)

*MENDING THOSE LINKS

It's one of the most irritating messages you can receive: the all-too-familiar Error 404 message indicating that you browser cannot connect to the link you have clicked on. The problem has earned the name "linkrot" and is caused when links are not updated after web pages move or

are renamed or deleted. Currently, web site owners use applications known as link checkers to ensure that any hyperlinks they have created to pages within their own web site or to other web sites are active. Now Linkguard claims to be the first company to offer a solution to broken incoming links. It has created a specialised search engine that maps the web so that it can

see when customers trying to find its client's pages are being turned away by error 404 messages and repair the broken pathways. The service costs US$50 per year for a small website of up to 400 pages. http://www.linkguard.com

E-JOBS

South African-based itweb has a jobs column for those interested in working in the ICT sector in South Africa. However, be warned! The site is very graphics heavy and takes an age to download. Go to: http://www.itweb.co.za

InterWorld Radio are looking for an news journalist with one or two years of radio experience to work 3 hours every weekday morning. We are launching a daily bulletin for radio stations covering stories about international development and environment. It's possible that the journalist will not need to come into the office, although there would be an initial period of being in-house. Interested journalists should emaileditor@interworldradio.org .

News Update is a free e-letter covering African internet content and infrastructure developments published by Balancing Act. The latest issue and all previous issues appear on the Kabissa.org web site (http://www.kabissa.org), which is a Balancing Act pilot project. For further information about Balancing Act and its pilot projects, contact Russell Southwood on

southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk . All material is copyright but can be used if permission is sought.

BACK NUMBERS

Past issues have covered:

16.     Why isn't Nigeria one of Africa's big internet players?

15.    Liberia's first fully-fledged ISP

14.    Speaking in Tongues? A Shona language web site

13.1   Education and ICT - What's the pay-off?

12.     ICANN vs .ZA - Welcome to the parallel universe

11.     Interviews with key Zambian ISPs

10.     Benin - No telephone lines, no wired society?

9.      South Africa - Growing pains in a highly regulated market

8.      The All-African portal - A new contender enters the field

7.      Sierre Leone's leading independent newspaper on the internet

6.      Liberia

5.      The state of the internet in Madagascar

4.1     The internet in four countries (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda)

You can read and download these at http://www.kabissa.org. If you have difficulties accessing the web, mail us on southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk.

FREE SMALL ADS

News Update will be launching a free small ads section for its readers in the near future. In the first instance, ads will be restricted to 50 words. Please send them to Russell Southwood, News Update (southwood@boyden.demon.co.uk)