Little known by the outside world until genocide tore the country apart 15 years ago, Rwanda has become the first nation to launch a wireless broadbandI Internet facility in Africa.

Little known by the outside world until genocide tore the country apart 15 years ago, Rwanda has become the first nation to launch a wireless broadbandI Internet facility in Africa.

Unlike other countries in Africa, where mobile broadband Internet connection is restricted to a few buildings, Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, has become the first capital city in Africa broadly offering high-speed services, overtaking Nigeria and South Africa, Africa’s biggest telecom markets in terms of both investment and users.

The launch of the wireless facility means that Rwandese will now be able to surf the Internet anywhere and anytime in the capital city using their laptops.

The US$7.7 million wireless internet facility has been built by Korea Telecom, South Korea’s largest fixed line operator. Korea Telecom is a prominent South Korean integrated wired and wireless telecom service provider. The contract to build the wireless Internet facility was awarded to Korea Telecom in 2007 by the Rwandan government. The service is based on WiBro technology, the South Korean version of the mobile WiMax IEEE 802.16e specification, and will offer 5.5Mbps and 2Mbps connection speeds.

The launch of the wireless internet facility also marks the entry of wireless broadband technology in Africa.

“By launching the wireless facility, Rwanda has become the ICT hub not just in east Africa but the whole Africa. Other countries must surely follow the footsteps of Rwanda,” said Mwape Mutale, CEO of the center for ICT development in Africa.

In addition to the wireless broadband internet facility, Korea Telecom is also constructing a US$40 million Kigali Metropolitan Network project. The Kigali Metropolitan Network project is based on on a fiber-optic loop and will be the largest computer network in Rwanda, providing connectivity for local area networks. The Rwandan government claims over 45 government institutions have already been connected to the high-speed Internet facility.

The Rwanda Metropolitan Network will be completed next year, according to Rwanda Development Board (RDB) deputy chief executive in charge of information technology Patrick Nyirishema.

Rwanda’s vision is to promote and facilitate modern infrastructure development by 2020.

In the next three years, the Rwandan government is aiming to provide access to high speed Internet to more than 4 million Rwandans through the wireless Internet facility and the Kigali Metropolitan Network project.

Until last year, Rwanda was also the first country in Africa to have a mobile phone assembling plant through a company called A-Link Technologies. Early this year, the world Bank provided $24 million to Rwanda for the provision of broadband connectivity and access to low-cost international connectivity through the connection to the undersea cables in east Africa.

Source: Michael Malakata, IDG News Service

16 years ago, an Internet Community from Ghana connected West Africa to the Internet and transferred this knowledge to other countries in Africa. Sadly, this community has been ignored over the years and no wonder Ghana has lost it’s presence on the global internet space with an internet penetration rate lower than the average on the African continent.

Group picture of participants at the First AfNOG EO localization workshop held at the University of Cape Coast

The President of Internet Society, Ghana Chapter (ISOCgh) Mr. Daniel Obuobi in a welcome address recounted how Internet Technology workshop had started in 1993 and since then to 2000 eight countries have held such workshops. The localizing of such workshops became more important so as to reduce the cost of travels and increase participation as well as build capacity on the continent. The results, was the birth of African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) with Internet Society (ISOC) facilitating and providing support. In this same regard, ISOCgh accepted the challenge of localizing AfNOG EO track (Unix System Administration). This got strong approval from ISOC and the University of Cape Coast opted to facilitate the process by hosting the first ever AfNOG EO localization workshop/conference.

To feather extend the localization drive the Ghana Network Operators Group (ghNOG) was born on the 31st day of July, 2009 at the University of Cape Coast. ghNOG is a “forum for the exchange of technical information to ensure stability of the Internet Services in Ghana” with the aim of creating a community for sharing experiences and technical challenges on setting up, building and running IP networks in Ghana.

The event begun on 27th July with participants from government, education, industry and non-governmental organizations been taken through Unix System Administration using Free BSD (ghNOG-1). Topics covered included; Unix concepts, FreeBSD installation, DNS concepts, configurations and delegations, Apache and Virtual Hosts, Email systems using exim, System Log Management and backups. The climax of the event was the outdooring ceremony of the new baby ghNOG. The President of ISOCgh hoped to see a vibrant ghNOG working closely with ISOC Ghana to organize technical workshops, conferences and annual meeting at various venues across the country to build capacity.

Mr. Michuki Mwangi, Senior Education Manger, ISOC in a short message was excited to be part because Ghana was close to his heart and also he attended an AfNOG training that was organized in Ghana in 2001 which marked the start of his career and has made him who he is today. As he puts it “to give back to the community that helped change me”. Mr. Michuki was an instructor at the workshop. Sharing with the audience a story on Skunkworks in his home country Kenya. Skunkworks is mailing list of young and upcoming engineers who with little or no resources are helping solve problems, making great innovation and helping local authorities to know where to go for help. “Its not perfect but has filled a void” Michuki said. He recommended that, Ghana develop these communities along a common line that brings the youth, young engineers together to harness their talent since it was difficult to get such talents in our part of the world in a group.

AfNOG Convener and ex-board member of ICANN, Prof. Nii Quaynor in his message applauded the development of Internet operator groups which in May 2000 gave birth to AfNOG in Cape Town, South Africa. At the 10th anniversary of AfNOG in Cairo, Egypt in May 2009, the role of NOG’s became even more apparent and important and as he noted “the growth of the internet network simply demanded more technical capacity of operators who had to coordinate and communicate better”.

The Internet Technical Community through ghNOG will deliver;

• ghNIC domain name registry,
• ghCERT,
• GARNet,
• IXPs/Roots,
• W3C office,
• AfrNIC training office and more… he added.

The two key success factors Prof. Quaynor noted were; extent of engagement of the community and policy environments. One interesting question he asked was the “e-Readiness of our Judiciary to handle IT related cases at IT speeds” an experience his own company Network Computer Systems (NCS) had suffered from.“the Internet Technical Community is our only weapon to prevent the digital divide”

Concluding his speech, he wished ghNOG and its trainers and trainees to be missionaries/revolutionaries who will champion internet development and selflessly serve their communities. “Ghana deserves an Internet renaissance” he added.

ghNOG!!!! Success………!!!!!

In the keynote address by the Hon. Deputy Minister of Communication Hon. Gideon Quarcoo, commended ISOCgh for its work in bringing to the forefront the importance of the Internet as an indispensable tool that we can use to accelerate the socio-economic development of the country and creating a forum for the exchange of technical information, sharing of experience and capacity-building for the industry given the constraints. The Minister called on the Internet fraternity to join hands with Government in addressing the security threats confronting the development of the Internet in general. He noted that in the area of legislation, the Ghana Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772) which among others, will help develop a safe, secure and effective environment for the conduct of electronic transactions.

He charged ghNOG to complement Government’s efforts and provide practical and meaningful measures that can help control the menace of security. The Ministry of Communication has developed a comprehensive e-security policy that has identified eleven priority areas to secure the country’s systems, infrastructure and information he added. A copy of which he is presenting to ghNOG for study and guidance in its operations. He also mentioned an e-Security Policy document which was part of the Ministry’s arrangement for the establishment of a national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). He again noted that the Ministry was enjoying goodwill from Industry and this will enable it establish a governing Board for the Internet Registry and facilitate multi-stakeholder participation in the management of Ghana’s domain name space. “Government is also working to reduce the cost of bandwidth to promote the growth of the industry” he added.

He stated “Let us collectively strive first and foremost, to protect the internet and build confidence in its usage. There is so much expectation out there, and we dare not fail in our endeavour”

The Ghana Network Operators Group (ghNOG) was then formally declared duly launched by the Hon. Deputy Ministry. And promised the Ministry’s and Governments support and cooperation to the community at all times.

The board for ghNOG was inaugurate and were made of 6 members with Mr. Ernest Brown as interim Convener. Mr. Ernest Brown, GM of Zipnet and Mrs. Christabel A Addo Mfoamfo of AfOL are representing GISPA at ghNOG.

Presentation sessions were organized;
Mr. Ayitey Bully, Technical coordinator, AfrNOG presented on the Role of NOGs in National Development.

Prof. Dakubu, GARNET, UG presented on Roles of NRENS in National Development.

Prof. Nii Quaynor, Convener, AfNOG presentation was on IGF: A Multi-stakeholder Process

Towards an Improved National Internet Infrastructure: Prospects & Challenges -by Ezer Yeboah-Boateng (for GISPA)

Mr. Issah Yahaya Director, Ministry of Communication presented on New ICT Initiative for Accelerated Development

Presentation on ccTLD as a Backbone to Information Society was by Eric Akumiah, GM, Africa Top Level domain organization

ghNOG will be have a series of training workshops in the months ahead details of which will be had available on the site.

From Foreign Policy, a map showing increased connectivity and the importance of investing in Information & Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) in Africa.

As interconnectivity between African countries increases, economic benefits are expected, especially in Kenya, which has a fast developing IT sector. Other potential impacts include education and access to media.

Increased interconnectivity also means increased importance of online media.

See also this 2007 global map by Alcatel-Lucent (5.6mb PDF).

By Matt Armstrong

African countries should focus on lowering the cost of broadband access to boost their economies, a new World Bank report has said. Seven Sub- Saharan countries scored the lowest possible result in a new technology ranking of the World Bank due to weak regulation, limited competition, lack of mobile banking and free mobile call roaming are already copied on other continents. “If you look at dynamics and evolution, they are doing really well,”Mohsen Khalil, World Bank Group Director for Global ICT, told Reuters.

The continent in the region have started to invest in IT infrastructure, but the cost of fixed and mobile phones services and internet services are still two of five times the average income, hampering the take up. “There’s still a long way to bring down cost,” Khalil said. He said the typical monthly mobile bill is still $10-$12 in Africa, while in South East Asia many operators run profitable operations with average bills of $5 or less. New subsea cables built on the eastern coast of Africa and many on –land infrastructure projects are helping to boost communications in the region, but the economic crisis is putting its own mark also on the sector. “The promise is there, but it’s not an easy ride,” said Philippe Dongier, one of the authors of the report. The World Bank introduced on Tuesday a new ranking to measure countries on ICT technologies , saying it was more robust than many other similar rankings, an offering a tool for countries to boost their economies.

The report found a strong link between GDP growth and Broadband access, underlying the need for stimulus programmes in which governments around the world have allocated billions of dollars to expand high speed Internet aces to fight recession. It found that for every 10 percentage-point increase in high speed Internet connections, there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points. Canada, South Korea, The Netherlands, Britain and the Scandinavian countries - Norway, Sweden and Denmark- scored the highest points in all three categories of the ranking, in accessibility, affordability, and usage of ICT.

Burundi, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Guinea- Bissau and Niger are at the bottom of the list, with minimum scores in all three categories. “In each of these seven countries, access to telephony is below five percent of the population, access to the Internet and personal computers is below 0.1 percent, and less than 10 percent of the households have a television,” the report said.- Reuters

Source: Daily Graphic, Wednesday, July 1, 2009