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The countries below contain a historic archive of information on the state of the internet that is now three years old. For some countries, the information has remained largely the same whereas for others considerable change has occurred. However it can still be used to identify organisations involved in developing the internet and to understand the historic development of the Internet in Africa. For up-to-date (but "pay-for") information click here: There are special rates for students and universities.

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This is an area where you can download longer articles and reports of interest. These will be updated as new material becomes available.

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(Word format, 875kb)
This IDRC-supported research study looks at how complaints by African consumers in the telecoms and Internet sectors are dealt with and what input consumer organisations are able to make into policy for these sectors. It is based on a survey of 30 African countries and includes detailed case studies of Kenya, Senegal and South Africa.

Download 2 Word document
(255kb)
This chapter from the ITU's Global Trends in Telecommunications Reform 2005 examines the market and regulatory implications of the shift to IP networks and outlines the different types of responses regulators are making to VoIP calling.

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(pdf format, 310kb)
Leslie Chan, Barbara Kirsop, Subbiah Arunachalam look at the use of Open Access archiving as a way of improving scientific capacity building.

If you have updates or interesting material to add, please send it to info@balancingact-africa.com

ALGERIA ANGOLA BENIN BOTSWANA BURKINA FASO BURUNDI CAMEROON CAPE VERDE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC CHAD COMOROS CONGO COTE D'IVOIRE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO DJIBOUTI EGYPT EQUATORIAL GUINEA ERITREA ETHIOPIA GABON GAMBIA GHANA GUINEA GUINEA-BISSAU KENYA LESOTHO LIBERIA LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA MADAGASCAR MALAWI MALI MAURITANIA MAURITIUS MOROCCO MOZAMBIQUE NAMIBIA NIGER NIGERIA REUNION RWANDA SAO TOME & PRINCIPE SENEGAL SEYCHELLES SIERRA LEONE SOMALIA SOUTH AFRICA SUDAN SWAZILAND TOGO TUNISIA UGANDA UNITED REP OF TANZANIA ZAMBIA ZIMBABWE

ISSUE NO 414

Race to build a west coast fibre promises to push international bandwidth prices to new lows

Four international fibre projects are racing to complete ahead of each other on the west cost of Africa to give some much needed additional capacity and price competition to SAT3. The drop in bandwidth prices could be spectacular. Russell Southwood looks at the runners in the race and asks whether West Africa is ready for the potentially market-changing impact of cheap international bandwidth.
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TELECOMS

Former MTN Nigeria top guns join bid to buy controlling stake in NITEL

A consortium promoted by ex-MTN Nigeria top executives have launched a bid for stakes to be unbundled by Transcorp in Nigeria’s incumbent telco Nitel.
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INTERNET

Telkom South Africa to Reduce Costs of Bandwidth to Boost BPO&O Industry

Telkom has announced it's willingness to work with the Department of Trade and Industry's incentive programme and the Business Process Outsourcing and Offshoring (BPO&O) industry by significantly dropping the costs of bandwidth.
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COMPUTING

Uganda’s Army gets Computerised Data Management System

The UPDF has installed the integrated information management system at all the division and brigade headquarters to eradicate ghost soldiers on the payroll, reports Chris Ocowun.
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ON THE MONEY

Telkom South Africa Needs More Time for Talks on Its Convoluted Vodacom Transaction

A convoluted two-part deal for Telkom to shed its 50% stake in Vodacom and sell everything else it owns to a black empowerment group is taking a while to negotiate, prompting Telkom to buy itself more time.
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WEB AND MOBILE DATA NEWS

Mixed Reactions As Celtel prepares to change to Zain in Uganda

Yesse Oenga, the head of Celtel Uganda hands over a house key to one of the recent winners of a promotion which featured the prominent red and yellow colours, but a switch is imminent.
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BACK ISSUES

ISSUE 413

Fight the power: Ghana’s insurgent challenger ISPs set to take on the vertical-integrators

ISSUE 412

Dabba looks set to make micro low-cost voice telco operations a reality

ISSUE 411

Chinese-supplied CDMA 2000 becomes hybrid convergence challenger for African operators

ISSUE 410

Mauritius call-centre and BPO sector needs lower international bandwidth prices to stay competitive

ISSUE 409

Triple play and broadband will power the next stage of growth for Africa’s Internet

ISSUE 408