The good news of today was that the first of the long-awaited undersea cables bringing high-speed internet to East Africa went live. So far the connections have been made via satellites, which equals to lower connection speeds and a lot higher prices. I have heard that a connection of 512kb could cost up to 300 USD/month in parts of West Africa, and even then the connection is divided by many users (even though it is not supposed to). However, higher prices are also possible as shown in this example from Tanzania.
The bad news (of the same good news) is that it seems the new cables are unlikely to make the connections for consumers any cheaper. The connections might get faster, which is remarkable already by itself (some say that the use of YouTube etc. has so far been practically impossible), but most of the ISPs (Internet Service Provider) have not made any commitments on bringing the prices down. However, for businesses the prices are going to get cheaper, even as much as 80% (how is this possible that it only includes businesses..?). Thus, at least in Kenya, it is hoped that it will be the cyber-cafe owners who will pass the benefits to the consumers.
I think its great that more people can connect, because the web can truly be a useful tool in development and not just an endless well of sex, entertainment and useless information (not that there is nothing wrong in those either). Therefore, if this new cable brings connection to schools and other useful entities that is just superb. However, I think it is just as important to get the average consumer into the picture as well, but with a monthly price tag of 300 dollars I do not see that happening (I could not afford it myself), and the exclusion between some and the others might just get bigger.
With so many people without connection in Africa I fail to see why lowering the prices would not make a viable bottom-of-the-pyramid market for the ISPs? Furthermore, should not the competition take care of this automatically or do the ISPs pact among themselves or run by state-owned or state-linked monopolies (which is kind of what is happening in Spain with Telefonica)? Or is it just that people do not have the gadgets (computers, mobiles etc.) needed to access the web, and that is why the hope lays upon the internet cafes?
Interesting to see however how things turn up though. As a slightly depressing point of reference, it has been said that the cable in West Africa did not fulfill its promises, at leat not entirely. Moreover, I do not know how much the new cables help the inland countries, is there the needed infrastructure in place to take the connections further? In any case, at least one of the items blocking high speed and reasonably priced internet connection is out of the way. Furthermore, if nothing comes out of this one, other initiatives to help the situation are underway as well. It is just that with a little more pacience and little less “hasty” greediness already this one might hit the target.
