Technological Infrastructure and Use of ICT in Education in ... - ADEA

Technological Infrastructure and Use of ICT in Education in Africa: an overview
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and Swaziland. These low levels of teledensity are being overcome, to
some extent, by rapid growth in mobile cellular telephony, especially the
pre-paid service that accommodates irregular sources of income. In 1990,
there was a cellular presence in only six countries, while today there are
over 100 networks in 48 African countries, serving more than 24 million
people (10 million of whom are in South Africa) (Jensen, 2000, 2002).
The role of mobile telephony is thus very important in the African context.
Table 7 below shows the number of fixed lines and mobile subscribers
in 2001 for the ten countries that were part of the African Connection
study.
Table 7: Fixed and mobile lines in 2001
Country
Fixed lines per 100
people in 2001
Mobile subscriptions
per 100 people
in 2001
Algeria 6 0.3
Cameroon 0.67 2.73
DR Congo 0.04 0.26
Kenya 1.0 3.0
Morocco 3.9 15.7
Nigeria 0.43 0.28
Senegal 2.45 4.0
South
Africa
11.35 21
Tanzania 0.41 1.19
Zambia 0.8 0.92
Source: African Connection (2002)
In all cases, except for Algeria and Nigeria where mobile companies
have only recently entered, mobile telephony is reaching many more
people than are fixed lines.
Other new technologies such as Voice over IP (VOIP) and wireless connections
are also increasingly being seen as alternatives to fixed line
telephony, especially because of the high costs associated with fixed
lines and hence also Internet usage.
7. ICT Infrastructure in Africa