BUSINESS NEWS
Gates says Africa needs connectivity
Posted Wed, 12 Jul 2006
The cost of connectivity was the biggest factor inhibiting more access to computers, specifically in developing continents such as Africa, Microsoft chairperson Bill Gates said in Cape Town on Tuesday. "That cost is much higher in places where there's less people connected. In urban Africa the costs are higher, and in rural Africa, not only is it much higher... in many places it's simply not available," Gates told an audience attending the final day of the Government Leaders Forum-Africa conference. The two-day conference was looking at accelerating Africa's global competitiveness. Gates said even in the United States, when people wanted high-speed broadband internet access, the costs of connection for the year were more than that of a personal computer. Gates said the question of low-cost connections was being tackled, with appropriate technology currently being developed. For example, wireless approaches capable of working over vast distances with limited
costs, were the solution. "And we'll be piloting these throughout the developing world," he said. Gates said there were frequencies in Africa and Asia that were available for use. "So even that one piece that is still so difficult, if you look at the five- to ten-year time frames, will have very inexpensive solutions to that." Gates said the current technology to change the way the world works had been underestimated every step of the way. "This technology makes the world a smaller place, and so particularly for people who are not in the... urban centres, this technology can be revolutionary," said the billionaire philanthropist.
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