Google products manager for sub-Saharan Africa, Divon Lan, recently told local media that the country has the highest Internet connectivity costs in the world, and that they are embedded in the high cost of bandwidth for end users. Recent studies have also shown that Zambian Internet connectivity can cost as high as US$6,000 per megabyte — double the cost in other African countries.
Google is planning to introduce Zambian languages, including Bemba and Nyanja, on the Internet, claiming the Web is a force for societal change as it provides access to information without barriers. Lan, who is based in Israel, said Google wants to promote ICT in Zambia.
Due to the high cost of Internet connectivity, Lan said access has been restricted to the capital, Lusaka, and other urban areas. Other than mobile commerce services being provided cheaply by mobile service providers, very few Zambians are able to do online transactions because of the high cost of access.
Last year, Google released map information for Zambia for the first time on Google.com and is now trying to find ways of making the search engine more relevant to local consumers by integrating Zambia’s local languages.
Milner Makuni, the past president of the Computer Society of Zambia, said that despite Zambia having 14 ISPs competing for business, the connectivity costs have not declined significantly. This is mainly because Zambia has been relying on satellite for Internet connectivity, Makuni said. Secondly, the cost of bandwidth from the undersea cables running under the India Ocean is still very high.
“But I think very soon we will see a reduction in Internet connectivity because Zamnet, Zesco and Zamtel have now connected to the international undersea cables,” Makuni said in an interview.
Zambia also has an agreement with the East Africa Submarine Cable System to get cheaper bandwidth from the cable once it becomes operational in June this year.
[infoworld]
I think local languages are harder to comprehend than English. I strongly feel this is more of a marketing strategy rather than just catering for local consumers.
You can’t even speak English properly yet you’re objecting to the use of your local languages! dah!
I would like to speak good English
hahahah,nice one #2
I bet there will be confusion as i think of ichimpodwa. imagine chatting with your tonga friend you met at CBU and suddenly you read mwautwa! hey or eya mukwai as if its AIR MUKWAI
apprently south africa is connected to the undersea fiber network,but their broadband connectivity and costs isnt any better than in zambia,infact you can even download music or movies in zed at about 100kbps as compared to 75kbps in joburg,meanwhile they are connected to the underseas fiber.Its all corporate politics at play,its very rare that big corporations complain abt slow internet connectivity and bandwidth,only SOHOs(small or home office) users who are hit hard because they dont pay as much as big organizations and more over SOHO users will most likely be downloading porn/music/streaming youtube or whatever, and once an ISP tracks your torrent,ie,dowloading engine,they scale you down so fast you wont know what hit you,they say you have gone over your allocated download allowance
We don’t have to justify the cost by comparing to SA. We have to do what is right for our country. In Zambia everything is exaggerated in value. Look at the price of Land in Boabab, Lusaka, $250,000 for 10 acres! Wow. For a country with no shortage of land this is ridiculous. Actually who pays this for undeveloped property? I have seen some houses in Zambia going for as high as $500, 000. In Canada that would buy me an amazingly beautiful house. Lets stop the insanity. That is why Chiluba wants wants so much land so he can turn a profit.
Wake up Zed!! Its a global world.
# 5 are you able to give us figures so that we can compare costs. i know for 5 GIGS using telkom is about R 220.00 which should work out to about US $ 30.00. Has any one got any figures for Zambia then we can compare
#2 Zedian, wanisekesa! But ni zoona ka!
@ #2, thats the spirit! I just get worried about how we think that our mother tongue have become useless! I am a proud user of bemba and nyanja and I would gladly use these languages on the internet. For me, its fun! Bakalamba icibemba nefitundu fimbi ifya mu zambia fisuma sana. Ba google tuleya pantanshi bane, ngefyo iciswahili caliba pa micosoft office?
it will sell….use 7 local languages not only 2..coz if u do..u will not be frustrated..
:d To say the truth internet service facilities is very serious issue for everyone not only for hotels and companies,zambia has to cope to other african countries, as of many countries nowadays things like computer, laptops are not taxed to make the use of computer and internet services easy for everyone, countries like tanzania, computers are going at cheap prices, used or new they are quiet cheap, we internet providers should also reduce charges as to make the use of internet easy,pple they are learnin through internet, but if it is expensive and not available, how could customers make bookings, payments and many more to say.i think the minister of communication should work on this matter, In midddle east nearly in the airports, cafes, shopping malls and restaurants, internet is free wi
free wireless,and now it wil be free open areas palying grounds,open spaces where pple can with notebooks becourse of Optic Fibre Under Sea Ocean Cable, In Rwanda very soon it wil be free wireless internet, so who ever has notebook or a computer wil access free internet, and its a small country if yu compare to ZED plse do like wise for yo pple?
**** zambia i hate zambia.we know little about the internet because of expensive internet rates.
2012 – visited Zambia for 3 weeks – I was glad to be able to use my UK-registered Android phone in Zambia on the MTN network, and to be able to use the tethering services on Android to make my mobile phone a wifi hotspot. I visited Zambia with 3 other EU friends, and I must say having a mobile wifi for three weeks was quite AMAZING! \:d/ – decent speeds and we still kept in touch with the rest of the world (e.g on whatsapp), we felt the costs slightly (hopefully competition will remedy this), however, twali sansamuka sana \:d/
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Great staff gents abt Zambia in terms of Internet.Mstly when u ar using BB,u cn enjoy with thse networks!