The Internet Government Forum (IGF) convenes in Athens at the end of October to chart a way forward for making the running of the Internet more inclusive, and more democratic. Several key issues of concern for various governments and members of the Internet community worldwide were amply articulated in the run-up to the World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS) – a process that has continued ahead of the IGF. Simply put, these issues revolve around enabling control of the ‘Internet’ and its technical arms to be decentralised from ICANN and its few chosen agents, increasing security of the Internet, having international oversight over the Internet, among others.

..

The debate about the model that should be adopted for EASSy often fails to look at the reasons why the companies that are signatories to the EASSy Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) are strongly against what is termed as open access. Is it because they do not want customers to enjoy lower prices? Is it because they are not interested in taking services to the furthest corners of the countries they operate in? Or is it simply because they have greed and therefore their eyes are glued on super-profits the cable promises to deliver?

Founded in 1865, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is arguably one of the exceptional global bodies based on partnerships between governments and the private sector. While other similar world bodies comprise politicians and other bureaucrats, ITU membership boasts of telecommunication policymakers and regulators, network operators, equipment manufacturers and hardware and software developers. CIPESA examines its origins, role in developing infrastructure and what Africa should look forward to.

[Special Report on CATIA Project. By Vincent Bagiire, CEO CIPESA]

 

As the Catalyzing Access to ICTs in Africa (CATIA) program comes to an end this August, the issue of infrastructure needs to be debated with the priority it deserves. Catalyzing access has a lot to do with availability of the required infrastructure. Indeed CATIA through its several components tries to address this issue although ultimately the deployment remains in the hands of the telecom operators for both the Internet and telephone services. It is for the above observations that CIPESA recounts the state of infrastructure in Africa below.