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09 December 2004
Internet Adoption in Africa - Botswana
In Botswana Internet usage a meagre 5 per cent, an article published on 30th November 2004 by the government DailyNews Online, Pelonomi Venson, the Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, presents her views on the development of Internet usage in Botswana. Botswana, which has built a fiber-optic telecom network and is experiencing strong mobile uptake, has 5% Internet users, on a total population of about 1.6 M people. They were 2% in 2001.
To explain what she takes to be a low adoption rate, the Ministry invokes the high cost of PCs, lack of electricity in most rural areas and high telephone bills due to dial-up Internet access. And to tackle these issues, she cites initiatives from Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) to reduce wholesale bandwidth prices for ISP; from Botsnet to offer a connected PC Bundle; from the government, ISP and the corporate world to deploy on-line services "tailored to the needs of the population".
Posted at 06:41 PM in Information Society | Permalink
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