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 Internet Access
The end of the beginning: DRC plans ambitious infrastructure development
LONDON, UK,
-- Balancing Act, one of Africa's most important ICTD online media, has picked up on a feasiblity study carried out by APC member Alternatives for an internet backbone for the Democractic Republic of Congo that featured in APCNews earlier this month. "For all the difficulties in Eastern Congo, the DRC has seen a number of recent developments that will form the beginning of a backbone development plan for the country," writes Balancing Act. "Canadian NGO Alternatives launched its extremely detailed feasibility study for a backbone plan and the Government has begun to look at some of the issues that will need to be addressed if it is to be implemented." - 09/11/2007
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APC at Highway Africa & Digital Citizen Indaba 2007
GRAHAMSTOWN, South Africa,
-- Highway Africa is where more than 600 African journalists gathered between September 10 and 12 in Grahamstown, South Africa. The conference was preceeded by the second Digital Citizen Indaba on blogging which was held at Rhodes University, same location, on September 10. Keep track of the debates on excellence in journalism, and issues such as community media and gender and media in Africa as APC blogs. - 09/11/2007
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A technology entrepreneur joins APC’s policy team in Africa
MONTREAL, Canada,
-- Coura Fall is enterprising, dynamic, knows the media and has knocked around with all sorts of acronyms. One of these is ICT, used to refer to information and communication technology. Coura is preparing to give us an earful of these three letters in her new appointment as Africa ICT policy coordinator for the Association for Progressive Communications. Her first objective is to advocate for a broader access to ICTs, in particular to the internet. This, she says, will primarily be pursued by partnering with civil society, governments and the private sector for developing internet infrastructure in Africa. - 08/21/2007
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NEW REPORT from APC monitors political will to make the information revolution reality for all
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay,
-- A new watchdog report from APC and the Third World Institute monitoring promises made by governments and the United Nations to ensure that information technology is used to benefit millions of people, was launched in Geneva on May 22. Studies of the ICT policy situation in twenty-two countries from four regions are featured: Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda); Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines); Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru); and Eastern Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania), with one report from a Western European country (Spain). - 05/23/2007
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A missing link? Media and development in Africa
LONDON, United Kingdom,
-- Is mobile technology driving the internet revolution in Africa? Does the distinction between new and old media make sense? These are some of the questions that APC raised in a recent conference on the role of media in building African society. - 03/23/2007
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'Consumers shouldn't subsidise South African telephone monopoly'
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa,
-- It's time to stop subsidising monopolies like Telkom, argues APC's director Anriette Esterhuysen. That's after Telkom told South Africa daily, the Financial Mail, that too much competition in the provision of international bandwidth in Africa could be bad for business. - 02/23/2007
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CALL FOR RESEARCHERS: SAT-3/WASC Cable Research Project: Country Case
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-- APC is currently looking to engage four ICT policy researchers to conduct detailed country studies of the SAT-3/WASC submarine cable in the following countries: Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, and Senegal. The specific context of the research will be on the areas that Open Access (as a concept) seeks to impact - namely access and cost. Research will be conducted on the impact SAT-3/WASC has had on the competitiveness of international and Internet services in each country. Interested researchers should in the first instance submit a copy of their CV and a sample of written work (of no more than 2000 words) to abi@apc.org Please include "SAT-3/WASC Cable Research Project" AND the name of the country you are applying to research on, in the Subject field of your email. Applications should be received no later than Monday 27 November 2006 (17:00 GMT). - 11/24/2006
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Opening internet access in Africa, convergence and developing country participation in the UN summit on the information society: All the focus of new papers from APC
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay,
-- Several new papers on key issues now and in the future are available online. Part of the "APC Issue Papers" series, they are currently being circulated at the UN conference on internet governance being held in Athens in English and French. - 10/31/2006
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“C4D needs to embrace the world of technology infrastructure”
ROME, Italy,
-- Politically, the World Congress on Communication for Development that is presently unrolling in beautiful Rome might not seem to be the most relevant event. No gender perspective to report on, little debate on the value of telecom infrastructure, almost no inclusion of information and communication technology for development on the agenda. In one seminar, APC nevertheless felt like going political. - 10/27/2006
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Looking beyond 2007, workshop on the future of SAT3
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa,
-- In July 2006, APC is to hold a workshop at Johannesburg, which will crystal-gaze into the future and discuss the
future of SAT3, a crucial submarine cable on which hinges Africa's chances to get a smoother ride to cyberspace. - 07/24/2006
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Internet infrastructure: APCNews meets ‘open access’ advocates in the EASSy run up
BERLIN, Germany,
-- Since 9 March 2006, an informal African ‘open access task force’ – made up of NGOs and small and medium sized ISPs – was initiated to lobby for the implementation of an open access model in internet infrastructure. The task force is currently mobilised to make the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) ‘easy’, affordable and open. APCNews staff writer Frederick Noronha has gathered statements from two civil society stakeholders in what is to become a determining project for Africans’ equitable access to the web. - 04/06/2006
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Not so EASSy
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa,
-- Major South African weekly, the "Mail and Guardian", reports from the APC-organised conference on EASSy, the East African submarine cable. The good news is that excessively high international bandwidth prices in Africa are to be challenged says the M&G but the benefits can be curtailed if operators maintain monopoly control. - 03/19/2006
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East Africa needs a fair entry-ticket to afford cyberspace: Easing Access to EASSy
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa ,
-- Africa currently has to pay for some of the most expensive bandwidth in the world. All this will change if the proposed East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) cable is built as it will connect countries on the eastern side of the continent and if this new capacity is offered in a way that maximises use and lowers price.
To help make this possible, APC is launching a new website “Fibre-for-Africa” and on March 10 will hold a consultation with more than 80 key stakeholders from all over Eastern and Southern Africa to ensure that access to EASSy -which will serve eight coastal and eleven land-locked countries- is ‘easy’, affordable and open. - 03/08/2006
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ENDA, Senegal: A Commitment to access
BERLIN, Germany,
-- Two weeks into 2006, Dakar (Senegal) played host to an exciting and educational workshop that brought together IT specialists and journalists from five francophone West and Central African countries. What gave the conference a particularly interesting ambiance was the gender balance attendees invited as speakers or participants, and the way that organisers were able to keep focus on gender at the top of the agenda of Universal Access Telecommunications policies. - 03/06/2006
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APCNews reporters cover the 6th Polycentric World Social Forums of Bamako and Caracas in four languages
BERLIN, Germany,
-- The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) provides online coverage of the World Social Forums (WSFs) happening on three continents this year. While Bamako hosted the first in a series of three consecutive WSFs, Caracas is presently filling up with participants from the world of NGOs, grassroots social movements and the socially engaged from all over the Americas. During 10 days, between January 19 and 29, follow frequent updates on APC blogs, articles on ICT-related workshops and conferences with APCNews, as well as in-depth reports on GenderIT.org and the Africa and Latin American & the Caribbean ICT policy monitor portals. - 01/30/2006
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APC project contributes to Kenya ICT policy approved by Cabinet
GOA, India,
-- For the last few years, APC has been working closely with other organisations and a large group of Kenyan civil society organisations and business to transform the national ICT policy. At last, a national ICT Policy has made it all the way! - 01/26/2006
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Mainstreaming ICTs in Africa, a new book is out
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa,
-- 'Mainstreaming ICTs: Africa Lives the Information Society" is a contribution towards efforts to bridge the "policy-practice" divide. The book is amied at development practitioners and ICT innovators interested in inventive technology applications for social justice and development. It contains 10 case studies reflecting on the innovative and creative ways information and communciation technologies (ICTs) have been used to promote people-centred development in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries. The book was compiled and edited by Women'sNet with the assistance of a Southern African editorial group including Toni Eliasz, Ria Greyling, Benter Okello, Muroro Dziruni, Ashraf Patel, and Natasha Primo. The project was supported by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).
- 01/23/2006
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New website: l'Observatoire des Politiques des TIC en Afrique de APC
TUNIS, Tunisia,
-- APC launched our new-look Africa ICT Policy Monitor website in French on the final day of the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia. - 11/18/2005
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New APC Issue Paper: Interconnection costs
PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa,
-- Communication infrastructures are changing at such an accelerated pace that while new technologies are released continuously, we are still ignorant about questions of internet interconnection. While the users of the North reap the benefits brought about by information and communication technologies’ advances, the users of the South are increasingly prevented from taking advantage of the innovations. Leading among the many factors, the privatisation of this sector’s operations in the industrialised countries and the adoption of new technologies have reduced the financial flows of the network towards the developing world. Available in English and Spanish. - 09/27/2005
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Behind the mumbo-jumbo of "Intellectual Property"
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-- Why do intellectual property issues matter to civil society? Because they affect the public's access to knowledge in the public domain and to copyrighted work, and infiltrated into the domain of food and medicine, threatening the sustainability of indigenous knowledge and biodiversity. What can be done to protect the global commons, and culture and life forms in the public domain that are the heritage of humankind? What can civil society do locally to ensure that IP legislation responds to social and cultural needs rather to the needs of international capital? These questions are looked at in the latest edition of “Chakula”, the APC Africa ICT policy newsletter. - 08/18/2005
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