UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
Networking in Africa: A Brief Analytical Overview, [Hadi Salim, Jamal]

Networking in Africa: A Brief Analytical Overview, [Hadi Salim, Jamal]

  • Internet Situation in Tanzania


  • Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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    Date: March 14Th 1995

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    Acknowledgements

    I would like to thank the following individuals:

    o Dr Dickson Eyoh at the University of Toronto (DEyoh@Epas.utoronto.ca)
    o Ali Hassan (ali@trix.genie.uottawa.ca)
    o Mwanamkuu Sheha (mona@lonestar.tlug.org)
    o Frank Eigler (fche@db.toronto.edu)
    o Feng Chang (changl@ecf.utoronto.ca)
    o Julie Sisskind (sisskind@sas.upenn.edu)
    o Mike Maren (mmaren@interport.net)
    o Shem Ochuodho (shem@arcc.kaact.kenya-net.org)
    o Allan Tattersall (artatt@cix.compulink.co.uk )
    o Nancy Hafkin (nhafkin@padis.gn.apc.org)
    o Ali B. Dinar, aadinar@sas.upenn.edu>
    ---------------------------------------

    1.0 Introduction

    The world is entering a new phase: the Information Age. Information technology, (IT) [e1] is increasingly becoming part of the social scene. There is no doubt that without networks[e2], information technology's beasts of burden, the path leading to the current transformation would have been awkwardly slow or non-existent. To fully visualize the effects that have taken place, one has only to look back in history for a few hundred years. Mankind has definitely undergone a revolution in long-distance communication. Geographical frontiers have diminished, and neither time nor space or physical constraints are any longer considered restrictive factors. Messages from the church of Rome to the emperor of China took the messenger, Marco Polo, decades to transmit end-to-end. Contrast this with the current situation where the cry of joy or otherwise from a wired[e3] individual in a remote part of Africa could reach the rest of the world in seconds; or imagine the near future situation where a professor would lecture interactively from within the comforts of his home in Africa to a class at a University in Toronto. Later on that afternoon, the same professor would be grading assignments submitted to him by another class in the United Kingdom[e4]. The technology to make all this possible has been around for a while; its implementation and use in the developed world is mainly being hindered by deeply rooted backlog technologies, worth over US$130 billion in the united States alone, which are being phased out at roughly 5% a year [1]. Talk of a new messenger, a new `Messiah' who is here to transform the world socially, economically and politically - "the information superhighway" abounds as profitable new needs and uses and the methods to service them are prophesized. It is being predicted that by the year 2000 [2], at least one billion people will be traversing this highway on a daily basis. These individuals will on average spend more time on the info-bahn[e5] than they would watching television.

    In this paper, a brief analysis of the networking aspects in the African continent is provided. On- going efforts and the various barriers encountered in the process of establishing computer information networks in various regions of the continent are briefly discussed. A condensed overview of the changes and opportunities that the upcoming superhighway might present are examined in the due process. Some solutions to the current problems are also suggested. This work contains experiences and opinions of several individuals who have been in the fore front in networking Africa as well as those of the author. As such, this essay may be of interest to those active in IT as well as those who have a general interest to know what is going on in Africa vis a vis the issues pertaining to networking. Political stability as a factor is not discussed; however, it is assumed that in order to setup a stable IT environment, it is a pre-requisite.

    2.0 Justification For Networking

    Networks, acting as very effective mediums of access to globally available information on widely varying issues, play a major role in this new age. The justification for the need for efficient networking in Africa is almost rhetorical. Bellman et al sum it up below [3]:

    "The efficient and effective exchange of information among researchers, educators, administrators, industrialists, and policymakers is crucial for the conversion of research results into useful products of economic and social value."

    Information in this new age is the de facto fuel. As a matter of fact, lack of access to information has already been used to partly define under-development [4]. The haves and have-nots are determined by a new social divide - access to information. An interesting fact is that 90% of information on Africa itself resides in Western databases [5]! This in a way is an alarming indicator of the continent's unpreparedness for the upcoming changes.

    The ability to access information, filter and eventually use it will be of paramount importance in this new world. The capability and flexibility in achieving this would reflect the capability to survive and thrive. Without efficient networking, given the fast pace at which things change with this new collective global cooperation, there is no doubt that Africa will be left, one more time, behind, blinded by the brightness of it all. Babacar Fall, the specialist appointed by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to revive PANA(Pan African News Agency) stresses the importance of networking in a revolutionary declaration in an interview with Wired magazine [6]:

    "For years the main obstacle to real development has been `we have to feed the people first' ..... But if you want the people to feed themselves, you have to have a different view. Say you go to a small village. People are hungry. Is the priority an electronic mailbox ... or 100 kilograms of corn? ... What we have learned over the past twenty years is that the mailbox may well be the priority."

    Halle Hansen, head of the Norwegian development agency, Norad, went to extremes when he stressed, in retrospect, the importance of networking in a relative comparison of Africa and India. He blamed the failure of democracy and development efforts in Africa to be the direct result of the lack of communication and information [7].

    The United Nations did recognize the importance of IT management when it set up the cooperative regional development information system, PADIS (Pan African Development Information System) [8] under the auspices of UNECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1980. PADIS' overall mandate is the "promotion of development information management in the Africa region...serve as a conduit for information and data for development... in which all members will voluntarily contribute information and share their information management techniques."

    The major uses of networking could generally be classified into four visible categories namely research, education, social interactions and business.

    2.1 Research

    Gone are the days when a researcher would work alone and achieve results. The information provided in this essay considering the time frame involved was mainly made possible by communicating with other globally dispersed individuals with similar interests, over the internet[e6]. Bellman et al elaborate[3]:

    "At the research level, interaction and communication with peers and potential users of research results are necessary for the stimulation, self-confidence, relevance, and effectiveness of scientists. Modern scientific research relies heavily on the ability to communicate; gather reliable data; have access to widely dispersed data and information (including analysis); collaborate on projects; hold discussions, meetings, seminars and conferences and disseminate the results. The pace and complexity of modern research have greatly increased the communication needs of researchers, scientists, educators, and their institutions. Scientists isolated are scientists unable to articulate their purpose and needs; such scientists soon become obsolete. The provision of appropriate information systems and services for this group of information generators therefore becomes apparent."

    Research has been the major focus of networking efforts in Africa todate.There are quite a few established networks for research purposes mainly funded by Western agencies. Those networks and other networking projects are briefly discussed below.

    2.1.1 Healthnet

    HealthNet, a non-profit service was created to facilitate communication amongst health professionals in developing countries and their counterparts abroad [9]. Apart from e-mail services, HealthNet provides access to medical literature, abstracts and summaries of journal articles, and current research. Intended users for this network are national medical libraries, medical school libraries, research institutes, health ministries, medical school, NGOs(Non-Governmental Organizations), grassroot organizations and health-care related institutions. HealthNet is funded by SatelLife (a joint USA/Russian venture out of Cambridge, Mass). It uses a low-orbit sun-synchronous[e7] satellite which passes over a given location about three times a day. The transmission of information is done via packet radio[e8]. The radio equipment used consists of a multidirectional antenna, a receiver and a microcomputer. All sites get, maximum 3 times a day, 18 minutes to transmit and receive data [10]. SatelLife ground stations have now been licensed and/or installed in eight countries in Africa: Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ghana, and the Congo. At Memorial University in Canada, SatelLife has a gateway to the Internet.

    2.1.2 ESANET

    ESANET Project is funded by the Canadian IDRC and its objectives is to link the universities of Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe by electronic mail. Currently there is accessibility from ESANET via Fidonet [11] to the outside world.

    2.1.3 RIONET

    RIONET [12] in Francophone Africa, was initially created to help with communication needs of the French governmental research agency Ostrom. It has since expanded to include 19 African countries which make up Conferences des Responsables de Recherche Agronomique Africains (CORAF)[e9]. The largest portion of the RIO network is in Senegal [13] linking six locations using a mixture of X.25 links supplied by Senegal's national packet switched network and ordinary direct dial-up telephone lines[e10].

    2.1.4 CABECA

    Capacity Building for Electronic Communication in Africa(CABECA) is a project to promote computer networking throughout Africa, executed by the Pan African Development Information System(PADIS) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa(UNECA). CABECA is funded by a grant from the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC).The objectives of CABECA are summed up by Lishan, the project coordinator [14]:

    "CABECA's overall objective is to provide the necessary technical assistance to bring about sustainable computer-based networking in Africa, at an affordable cost, and accessible to a wide variety of users from both the private and public sectors, including business persons, researchers, planners, policy makers and development workers from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to international organizations.The project will assist the development of national nodes to serve national communication needs with transparent connections to other national nodes and international networks. To build African capacity for computer networking, it will train a corps of systems operators who can train others in their area and offer the necessary continuing support to fledging users to promote sustainability of national or local nodes."

    2.1.5 Others[e11]

    Other established networking services include mainly efforts of NGOs. TOOLNET[15], based in Amsterdam was established to "foster the exchange of information experiences and expertise among organizations in the South and the North". TOOLNET Access Points are (or will soon be) operational in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Egypt and a plan for 1995 for Burkina Faso, Mali, and Sudan is in place.

    The Association for Progressive Communication (APC) [16] is a conglomerate of network activities which has "has distinguished itself by specializing in the communication needs of the global NGO Movement". APC partners include Wamani(Argentina), Pegasus(Australia/Pacific Islands/SE Asia), AlterNex (Brazil/South America), Web(Canada/Cuba), Nicarao (Central America/Nicaragua/ Panama), EcuaNex (Ecuador), ComLink (Germany/Austria/Zagreb/Turkey/Italy), Laneta (Mexico), Antenna (Netherlands), GlasNet (Russia/CIS), Histria (Slovenija), SANGONet (Southern Africa), Gluk (Ukraine), IGC (United States/ China/Japan), Chasque (Uruguay, Paraguay ), NordNet (The Nordic/Baltic), and GreenNet which serves Africa, UK, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

    2.2 Education

    Networks could be used to provide long distance interactive or semi-interactive education. The BESTNET project[17], which started as an experimental virtual classroom[e12] feedback mechanism for instructional television courses running out of San Diego State University has extended its successful venture to Africa in the form of AFRINET [17]. AFRINET's objectives are to establish educational, scientific and social development research network while "concomitantly developing a virtual exchange of students and faculty for academic programs". A more futuristic look at this would be, given the capacity, to have real-time long-distance education through video- conferencing. This would be an economical way to provide education to remotely located students as well as expand the educational system capacity without neccessarily equally expanding the facilities. Given this ability, a university would be able to take in more students without necessarily expanding its buildings and other facilities in the same physical location.

    2.3 Business

    One of the major social impacts that advances in networking bring with them is telecommuting[e13]. This implies that, with proper connectivity, someone could live in Africa but virtually work in another continent. This opens up incredible business opportunities for Africans or anyone willing to invest. The relatively low cost of labor amongst other things turns out to be the blessing in disguise.

    The concept of export of services finds its basis in telecommuting. A firm working on a non-tangible IT product in an African country would be very competitive in the world market since the product would, given the proper networks, be cheaper. The major and perhaps the only advanced infrastructure a country needs is a telecommunications network! Already India and Hungary are major exporters [18] of programming expertise. Ireland has been an exporter of editorial services for a while now [19] and Barbados is known to export secretarial services[20] On April 26 1994, William Carter, president of AT&T's Submarine Systems, Inc. proposed a billion-dollar optical network, for an information network that would ring Africa, connecting African nations with each other and the rest of the world via undersea fiber-optic cables [21]. AT&T realizes the economic and strategic position that Africa could play in the information age and is ensuring it stays ahead of its competitors in the game. Teledisc, a joint venture between Microsoft Corp. and McCaw Cellular Communications, is another organization which is setting itself ready to pounce to the businesses opportunities presented by the villagization of the globe. By this initiative Teledisc [22] plans an almost global takeover of networking. In what is termed as the "global internet", the agenda includes launching of a series of Low-Earth Orbit(LEO)[e14] satellites whose footprints[e15] will cover the whole globe. These satellites will form a network, amongst themselves, up in the sky capable of transmitting to each other at 1.244Gb/s16. This ambitious project, amongst a few others with a similar nature [22], predicted to be up and running by the year 2000 will have huge impacts on world telecommunications. To communicate with someone in another continent or country, you would dial the number using a wireless phone which allows you to transmit up to 2Mb/s; your local ground station would then link to your local[e17] satellite. Your local satellite will in turn link up to the satellite local to the individual you are calling, directly or by traversing a mesh of other satellites within the network- in-the-sky, thus establishing the two way connection. At 2Mb/s, with current technology you can video conference with the party you are communicating to![e18] One should note, however, that inter-country telecommuting may make it difficult to enforce laws, jurisdictions and work contracts. This is a normal difficulty involved in monitoring non-tangible products[e19].

    2.4 Social Interactions With basic networking services like e-mail, chat, and news, network users can socially interact. These services are less economically straining to the user than regular phone conversations or fax for the same purpose. Apart from this advantage over a regular phone conversation, value can be added to the networking services by providing expert opinion on different issues. Consider this paper as an example; this author initially posted on usenet to the newsgroup soc.culture.african requesting for any information on networking activities in Africa. Several individuals responded within a few hours either by posting a response on the newsgroup or by private email. Amongst the people who responded were some from Africa involved in IT activities as well as others from Europe and North America who have had first hand experience in setting up networks in Africa. With the unavoidable near-future fusion of the telephone, television and computer, more interesting services will be made available. These may include, amidst many others, the ability to exchange video mail with family and friends, hold virtual meetings, and benefit from remote medical consultation.

    3.0 Current Barriers The current barriers to advancing the networking cause in Africa generally include: o poor level of development and availability of telecommunications infrastructure. This has resulted in telecommunications services being available and somewhat reliable in capital cities only. Even in the cities, the telephone lines are still noisy limiting data transmission speed drastically[e20].

    o high tariffs on imported telecommunications equipment including computers and other peripherals making those equipment extremely expensive.

    o high telecommunications service costs especially in communicating internationally.

    o unavailability of local expertise in computer communication.

    R. R. Ronkin, of Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA)[24] sums up as follows the frustrations of many involved in attempts to set up networks in Africa:

    "Installation and maintenance involve customs, foreign currency limitations, bad telephones,... reluctance of the PTT to license modems..."

    Shem Ochuodho, Director, African Regional Centre for Computing (ARCC) adds in a response to one of the author's postings in the newsgroup bit.tech.africana:

    " Add to your list (of barriers) little sensitization, high telephone costs especially long distance, opportunism, and a general absence of information exchange culture."

    The Government owned Telecommunication monopolies normally artificially inflate outgoing telephone costs to discourage such calls and consequent loss of badly needed foreign exchange. A one minute call to Europe from Zambia will be rated at US$7 [25]. The Telecommunication monopoly by governments has been pinpointed as a major source of a lot of the problems mentioned. In an e-mail to the author[e21], MichaelMarek, a New York journalist, who has authored a book on Kenya, writes:

    "I think your biggest problem will be dealing with governments that are suspicious of all technology. Those who understand computer networks see it as a financial and political threat...A number of politicians are getting rich (in Kenya) stealing money from the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corp."

    The weather has also, at times, played part in being a barrier to IT! Alan Tattersall[e22], who has been implementing IT systems in the UK and Nigeria adds his experiences:

    "Unless the kit (system) is kept air-conditioned all the time it deteriorates - especially common are fungal and mite infestations of the keyboard and FDD, overheating and its effects on all components, backup disks are frequently found to be unreadable when needed."

    Professor John Sheppard, Director of the Computer Centre at the University of Zimbabwe shares his experiences [26]:

    "Lightning damage during the rainy season is a major problem. In the first 17 days of December 1992, zimbix suffered lightning damage.. on three different occasions."

    Add these problems with power supply outages and unreliability (over and under-voltage) and you get an almost chaotic situation as computers fail to even start up!

    4.0 Some Suggested Solutions

    Most of the ills imposed by the current barriers will be cured by privatizing the telecommunications industry. Governments should allow competition amongst the service providers while maintaining regulations so as to ensure fairness. This would create a situation conducive to cheaper rates. The governments would benefit by imposing taxes on these private companies. According to Mike Marek, the African country from which to place the cheapest international call is war-impoverished Somalia!

    "Private entrepreneurs have set up satellite stations and compete with each other on the basis of price and service. Some are starting to offer in-home phone service, fax, and other telecommunications. They can do this because there is no government. It costs less to phone the U.S. from Somalia than it does to phone London from the U.S. -- in some cases it's around $1 aminute. The connections are crystal clear. If Africa is left alone it will be fine. Somalia will lead the way."

    Voltage stabilizers, uninteruptible power supplies (UPS), lightning and power surge suppressors and air-conditioned in warm areas are some of suggested solutions to some of the mentioned problems.

    In order to be able to capitalize on the opportunities that IT presents, a widespread educational base is mandatory. The educational system should introduce a focus to this new industrial challenge.

    5.0 Conclusions

    It is obvious from some of the facts presented here that the major reason that the "information superhighway" is coming into the global picture and the investments by major world powers led by Al Gore's [27] declarations is a strategy to ensure a role in global economic dominance. In a paper presented during the annual Conference of the Peace Studies Association in Boulder, Colorado, February 28, 1992 at the Workshop on "How-to Utilize Communications Networks for Peace Studies", Howard H.Frederick states:

    "Already more than two-thirds of the U.S. work force is now engaged in information-related jobs. Almost half the Gross National Product of the 14 most industrialized countries, and one-quarter of all international trade, comes from services.....total world information and communication economy in 1986 was $1,185 billion, about 8 to 9 percent of total world output, of which $515 billion was in the United States."

    As the scramble for the pie that is the information highway, reminiscent to the scramble for Africa in the 1884-85 Berlin Conference[e23] is heating up, African nations appear to be out of the picture. The struggle of who is to be the major player in control and who are the pawns is but part of the social impacts that are foreseen. A lot of jobs will be lost in the new global village as redundancy of efforts is rid of. This will mainly hit the industrialized countries. Africa has nothing to lose really in this scenario, since it was never put responsible for much of the world's wealth in the first place! Counter migrations back to Africa[e24] by economically motivated individuals (both African and foreigners) is another social possibility. This is attributed to the fact that these new immigrants would be able to live the same life-styles that attracted them to the industrialized countries initially. With appropriate planning, Africa could come out a winner in this. It is the author's opinion that African Government decision makers should be leapfrogging to modern technologies when planning for newer network setups. This ensures equipment and protocol compatibility with any newer services that the info-bahn might have to offer at all times, thus securing the opportunity to be competitive. It is also, on average, cheaper to introduce newer telecommunication technologies than to start with existing ones.This is due to the fact that the microelectronic industry is developing at a very fast pace. As an assertion to this argument, it has been found that setting up an optical-fiber network is much cheaper than setting a copper based one [28].

    Whether the information highway will be Africa's opportunity at socio-economic redemption will depend highly on such foresight. Will the sleeping giant finally rise?

    References

    [1] Telecommunications: Protocols and Design by John Spragins with Joseph L. Hammond and Krzysztof Pawlikowski (page 26); Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte (page 26)

    [2] Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte (pages 58, 182)

    [3] Bellman, B. L., and Tindimubona, A. as appeared in {Harasim, L. Global Networks: computers and international communication}. MIT Press, 1993. page 243-44

    [4] ELECTRONIC MAIL IN ZAMBIA (A Review as at June 1992) by Mark Bennett Director, Computer Centre, University of Zambia. Source University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [5] ELECTRONIC MAIL IN ZAMBIA (A Review as at June 1992) by Mark Bennett Director, Computer Centre, University of Zambia Source University of Pennsylvania Web site.

    [6] Wired Magazine, June 1994 (page 60) article by Jeff Greenwald. Wired can be reached at info@wired.com

    [7] Computer Networks and the Emergence of Global Civil Society: The Case of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the Peace Studies Association Boulder, CO February 28, 1992. Copyright 1992 by Howard HFrederick,Ph.D <hfrederick@igc.apc.org>

    [8] The Pan African Development Information System [PADIS] Document on the University of Pennsylvania web site; author unspecified

    [9] University of Pennsylvania web site info on HealthNet: JOHN L GERONE 930303 Message-Id: <930303.014314.CST.EP2EPBG@VM.TCS.TULANE.EDU> Healthnet or Satellife to Africa [JOHN L GERONE Wed, 03 Mar 93 01:43:14 CST] Date: Wed, 03 Mar 93 01:43:14

    [10] ELECTRONIC MAIL IN ZIMBABWE: Prof John G Sheppard,Director,Computer Centre, University of Zimbabwe. Source University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [11] ELECTRONIC MAIL IN ZIMBABWE: Prof John G Sheppard,Director,Computer Centre, University of Zimbabwe on University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [12] Sources on RIONET as available from the University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [13] African Technical Forum Magazine (AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1992)

    [14] Sources on CABECA available on the University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [15] Message delivered by Henk Smeenk (hs@tool.nl) to the author on the internals of TOOLNET.

    [16] Computer Networks and the Emergence of Global Civil Society: The Case of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the Peace Studies Association Boulder, CO February 28, 1992. Copyright 1992 by Howard HFrederick,Ph.D <hfrederick@igc.apc.org>. Source University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [17]Bellman, B. L., and Tindimubona, A. Global networks and international communications: Afrinet. 34th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association (1991).

    [18] IEEE looking .forward Magazine Fall 1994 (page 8).

    [19] Source: Professor Leon Garcia, a Networks expert based at the University of Toronto whose second edition of the book Probability and Random Processes for Electrical Engineers went through such a process

    [20] Advertisement on Canadian Computer IT Professionals Magazine, June 94.

    [21] AT&T Press release. Source University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [22] IEEE SPECTRUM Magazine, January 1995, (pages 26-29)

    [23] IEEE SPECTRUM Magazine, January 1995, (pages 26-29)

    [24] Computer Networks and the Emergence of Global Civil Society: The Case of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the Peace Studies Association Boulder, CO February 28,1992. Copyright 1992 by Howard H Frederick, Ph.D <hfrederick@igc.apc.org>. Source University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [25] ELECTRONIC MAIL IN ZAMBIA (A Review as at June 1992) by Mark Bennett Director, Computer Centre, University of Zambia. Source University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [26]ELECTRONIC MAIL IN ZIMBABWE: Prof John G Sheppard,Director,Computer Centre, University of Zimbabwe on University of Pennsylvania web site.

    [27] Press meeting of US Vice President Al Gore at National Press Club December 21, 1993 in which he outlines his government's plan for the upcoming changes. Source The Electronic Frontier Foundation's web site at: http//www.eff.org/papers/gore.speech.html

    [28] Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte (pages 25)

    Endnotes

    1. According Collin's Dictionary of computers: "The acquisition, processing and distribution of informa-tion by Microelectronic systems through computers and Telecommunications."

    2. The term networks as applied to computers is becoming fuzzy. In a futuristic sense, it would encompass telecommunications, broadcasting, as well as current computer networks.

    3. An Individual who has access to a network. S/He is considered "wired" to wherever the network traverses.

    4. This is a reality at the moment. One example is the AT&T Teaching Theater at the university of Mary-land at College Park.

    5. The information superhighway is also referred by this name in relation to the German Auto-bahn highways which have no speed limit restrictions.

    6. The internet is a network of globally linked networks which is considered to be the predecessor of the Superhighway.

    7. Location of these kind of satellite over a given area is related to the sun's position over that location.

    8. These are packet switched networks which use radio to transmit between nodes. A message from a destination node would pass through several nodes before reaching its final destination. At each intermediate node it is stored and then forwarded when conditions are appropriate.

    9. RIONET nodes are available at Burkina faso, Cameroun, Congo, Cote D'ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Seyschelles, Madagascar and Mauricius.

    10. In this kind of access, a node is not hooked up directly to the global network. It accesses the global network by occasionally dialing up over a phone line to send and retrieve data (which could be mail, news or other files)

    11. A lot of other available networking services can be browsed at the University of Pennsylvania web site at: http://www.sa s.upenn.edu/African_Studies/AS.html The space and time do not allow for full coverage of all of them.

    12. A simulated classroom. The student would attend classes in a location other than that of the physical classroom where the course is being offered.

    13. The term derives from the fact that business organizations in the first world are realizing that it is more effective to use telecommunications to commute to work. Employees would save hours in the traffic jams by sitting at home and doing the daily work routines via a networked computer from their homes thus saving on the hustles of traffic and time to travel to and fro work. The organization saves on space to be used for the employees.

    14. These are satellites that will appear stationary from a given location'spoint of view. This is because at any moment there is one over a given location.They orbit the earth only a few hundred kilometers above its surface. VITA, which has had networking activities in Africa is considered as one of the top major player in this field.

    15. The area covered by a satellite. Could look at it as the "shadow" of the looming satellite.

    16. On average one page of 80 by 24 characters of text is approximately 2 kilobits. This would make 1 Megabit equal 500 pages and therefore 1.2444 Gigabits to be over six hundred thousand pages. This implies without considering overhead, more than 600,000 pages could be transmitted from one satellite to the other!

    17. Local implies the closest satellite whose footprints cover your area at any given time.

    18. The HTU-261 standard requires only 128Kb/s. MPEG-1 requires 1.5 Mb/s to deliver VCR quality video conferences.

    19. Since one can not physically see the products, this problem is evident.

    20. While references are being made to the possibility of terra-bit (1000 Gigabits/s) rates at the moment for data communications, a phone line in Zimbabwe is still transmitting at mediocre rates of 300-2400 bits/s

    21. Permission was obtained from Mike to print his private mail.

    22. Alan responded to my posting on bit.tech.africana

    23. In this conference, European powers pulled up a map of Africa, chopped it into pieces and each divided the pieces amongst themselves.

    24. This is my vision of things to come

    From: HADI SALIM JAMAL [hadi@ecf.toronto.edu[
    Message-Id: [95May16.115953edt.925@cannon.ecf.toronto.edu[
    Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 11:59:50 -0400


    Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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