Internet Connections Growing Fastest in Africa

Monday, May 1, 2006

Africa is gaining Internet connectivity faster than any other region and as such, service is spreading to smaller cities and rural areas via innovative technologies — and that only can help the expansion of free press, democracy and development all across the continent, says the co-founder and chief executive officer of allAfrica.com, Reed Kramer.

In an interview with the Washington File to mark May 3 World Press Freedom Day, Kramer cited a recent survey by the London-based newsletter Balancing Act, which projects that international bandwidth to Africa will grow by 81 percent between 2005 and 2008, making the Internet accessible to more users across the continent.

Kramer said Internet users in Africa now exceed 22 million, according to an estimate produced by Internet World Stats, a marketing and research Web site. Although only 2.5 percent of Africa’s 900 million people are online, compared with nearly 16 percent worldwide, the number has grown by 400 percent since 2000, the World Stats figures show.

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Source: AllAfrica.com (link opens in a new window)