IHY Questionaire on Internet Connectivity

Les CottrellSLAC & Monique PetitdidierCNRS

2nd IHY-Africa Workshop 11-16 November 2007, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Questions• Who do you represent• Internet coverage in country• Size of University• Bandwidth to Internet for University• NREN?• % Universities in country with Internet• Instrument• What is it used for• Suggestions

Sent to• Representatives of major universities in 19

countries• Answers from 17 Countries

– Benin, Cameroun, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Libya, Liberia, S. Africa (3), Algeria, Burkina Faso (2), Mozambique,. Ivory Coast, Congo DR, Congo R, Niger, Ethiopia, Uganda

– Await answers from Senegal and Namibia• See me afterwards

• 50% of responders use commercial email (e.g. yahoo.fr)

Main results• Typical leading university with tens of thousands of students has a

couple Mbps or less. – In some cases it is DSL at 128kbps or even dial up at 56kbps (c.f. typical US or

European University with >= 1Gbps)– Often only faculty are allowed to use the Internet.

• Only in 7 countries (Egypt, Cameroun, S. Africa, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Ethiopia) are all universities connected. – For other countries it varies from 5% to 50% of universities have Internet

access.• Only S. Africa (TENET), Burkina Faso (RENER) and Egypt (Internet

Village IV) have an NREN.• Four countries have Internet connectivity in capital only (Ivory Coast,

Niger, Congo DR, Congo Rep). • South Africa has access almost anywhere people can afford it.• Most want more bandwidth and reduced costs. Suggestions to

increase competition, remove monopolies, open markets to international companies. Reliable power is often cited as a problem.

African Attendee Country Statistics

Country

Q Response Population

Int BW Mbps

Internet Users

DOI Rank

Egypt Yes 82,073,660.00 3784 1000000 90South Africa Yes 43,743,316.00 882 1012500 91Senegal No 12,938,350.00 775 19351 112Cameroon Yes 18,569,348.00 155 6500 137Nigeria Yes 139,070,856.00 150 350000 155Kenya Yes 38,213,024.00 113 80000 164Uganda Yes 31,621,980.00 100 8000 152Burkina Faso Yes 14,866,133.00 76 14238 163Cote d'Ivoire Yes 18,465,326.00 55.4 13747 144Benin No 8,349,959.00 47 6396 147Niger Yes 13,364,797.00 30 3117 179Mozambique Yes 21,379,584.00 18.5 25000 169Ethiopia Yes 78,697,922.00 10 12155 173Namibia No 2,067,433.00 9 19000 109Libyan Arab JamahiriyaYes 6,208,637.00 6 Unk 101Congo, Dem Yes 68,554,526.00 5 Unk 150Congo, Rep Yes 3,926,738.00 1 Unk 154Liberia Yes 3,390,289.00 0.26 Unk Unk

Next steps• Add remaining countries who contact me• Post results• Accept corrections improvements• Consider a follow up questionaire

– Make questions clearer/simpler– New questions?