Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
in Africa has dramatically increased since 2006, only 9.6 per cent of
Africans were online in 2010. Of these, less than 1 per cent had fixed
line Internet access compared to 40 per cent in Europe, the Americas
and Oceania. Solutions to solving the digital divide for PC and Internet
users have included:
•
Community access points, such as rural 'telecentres' or street kiosks,
which help poor communities access banking and financial services,
telemedicine and education
•
Technical innovations in developing more robust and environmen-
tally appropriate hardware, including low cost and low power con-
sumption laptops
•
Projects like the 'One Laptop One Child' programme, which aims
to supply schools with cheap PCs that run on Open Source
Software (OSS)
•
Cooperatively owned IT enterprises, such as the Kudumbashree
project in Kerala, India, that helps disadvantaged women offer IT
services to the public sector. The project aims to empower women
through job creation and saving schemes (www.kudumbashree.org).
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Structural barriers to Internet projects have included the high cost of
hardware/software, a lack of infrastructure and local expertise, the
dominance of English-speaking language and content, and issues
relating to governance and censorship. Despite advances in the diffu-
sion of Internet networks across many parts of the global South,
mobile phones rather than PCs are more likely to bring about greater
social change.
The Mobile Phone 'Revolution'
The explosive growth in the mobile phone industry in the global South,
driven by new affordable and accessible technologies, is leading an ICT
revolution among the poorer communities of the world. In 2010, 73 per
cent of all new mobile subscribers came from the global South, and
mobile penetration rates for Africa were predicted to reach 41 per cent
by the end of the year (compared to the global rate of 76 per cent).
Furthermore, mobile connections in the 48 Least Developed Countries
have risen by 28 per cent in the previous decade. Advances in wireless
technologies have opened up a realm of new possibilities for connecting
remote rural communities to a range of local education, health,
