Connectivity Providers Database

From: jeffc@INFO.USAID.GOV To: Multiple recipients of list AFRIK-IT <AFRIK-IT@LISTSERV.HEA.IE> Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 05:20:17 +0000 Greetings Afrik-Iters! Mango, Data Control Internet Africa, Samara, CompuServe, ESANet, HealthNet, Stellar -- quite a few options in Zimbabwe. It's a youthful market, and the only certainty I can think of is that it will be different in a few months. Jim Holland of Mango expects to continue to serve the NGO and broader community with reliable electronic mail service and online conferences, taking advantage of local Internet carriers as they become available in order to lower costs still further -- they are already one of the most economical electronic mail Internet service providers in Africa: about US$5.50 per month plus a US penny per kilobyte. And I'm told they generate a surplus sufficient to invest periodically in new equipment, and to pay staff. I gather that SARDC provides an implicit subsidy in terms of office space and utilities. Similarly Rob Borland at the University expects substantial enhancements of ESANet and Healthnet electronic mail and conferencing service in the months to come. He observed that the biggest difference for Zimbabwe has been the greatly improved quality of basic local telephone line service quality from the Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC) of Zimbabwe, allowing users to connect at faster speeds, more reliably, more often. Healthnet users enjoy free service thanks to a Danish grant (I think -- or maybe it was Dutch -- apologies for the confusion!) Meanwhile a number of commercial companies are working to improve TCP/IP services. The most significant hurdles appear to be access to international leased lines and access to sufficient local telephone lines for user dialups. Competition is heated, and prices have fallen recently, about US$40 for unlimited full-Internet access (compared to $5.50 for email only from Mango). My guess is that the ISPs are all operating pretty close to margin (meaning no one is clearing much of a profit), and so we should expect competition to focus in the future on service -- a good thing for consumers, I expect. For example, Internet Africa offers one free (small) web page with every user account. CompuServe, which offers a Compuserve "CIM" account or the option of a "full Internet" PPP account, tells me they hope soon to offer significantly more space for web pages, and permit multiple pages within a space allowance, free with every account, their aim being to enhance local WWW content. CompuServe offers local dialup for CompuServe's CIM worldwide subscribers, meaning that if you have a CompuServe account in South Africa or Canada you can access that account easily (at a higher rate, however) in Zimbabwe. Similarly, Zimbabwe subscribers can check their mail from America. A nice feature for world travellers. Internet Africa has a response, however: It hopes soon to start Cyber-Cafes, which will permit a visitor to sip an espresso while logging in to a temporary PPP account and check their POP3 mail wherever in the world it resides. Meanwhile, I'm told the PTC hopes to offer "Internet access" by the end of the year, though there's some confusion as to whether that means retail or wholesale access. Stay tuned! I'm off to Dar es Salaam... Cheers! Jeff @ Harare USAID AfricaLink www.info.usaid.gov/alnk +1 703-235-5415