While the Internet is changing the world economy, large parts of rural Kenya are losing out on jobs, economic development and civic participation because of inadequate access to the Internet. Broadband should be considered as essential and as commonplace or a "traditional" utility service. In this wake of knowledge economy, development of a nation largely depends upon the proliferation of technologies and utilisation by the people.
Though the telecommunication penetration in Kenya has been rapid, the Internet and Broadband penetration has been significantly low. However, Broadband needs to be given top priority in Kenya so that the society grows faster.
Typically, broadband service is defined as an Internet connection having a speed of more than 256 kbps downloads. There is a lot of enthusiasm for Internet usage in urban areas.
Most users regularly use Internet through cyber cafés. But when it comes to high-speed broadband access the rate of broadband adoption is low. The Kenyan Broadband market is still at a nascent stage. However, through policy measures and government initiatives to promote broadband, the market is expected to increase.
The broadband industry is facing various challenges in its path towards growth. Traversing vast expanses of remote and often rugged landscape presents unique financial and technological barriers.
Broadband growth
Factors that will make the country broadband rich, are lower costs, bringing together people and markets, goods using broadband for e-trade and most importantly for the selection of prime movers/application.
If broadband were to be common among masses, the user experience of broadband usage will have to be enhanced. Infrastructure currently, DSL is dominating the market scene for providing broadband access. Apart from DSL and fiber optic, some of the other technologies available for broadband access are Cable, VSAT, and CDMA among others. Fibre is a preferred medium to deliver high-quality voice data & video A major constraint for Broadband penetration is the low penetration of computers. While PC penetration in urban Kenya is increasing considerably, its penetration in rural areas is very slow. The cost of broadband access devices and language of operating system play a major role in spread of Internet in rural areas. Content developers and service providers need to come together to provide Live TV, Webcasts, telecommuting, streaming audio/video applications, gaming, software on demand, remote education, telemedicine, entertainment etc. Such content pull new customers and would migrate the existing ones from narrowband to broadband.
Emerging wireless technologies
Rural market has to have its share of broadband technology. For broadband to have a reach all over the country, the service providers will have to look into various emerging technologies especially wireless. Wi-Fi technology has gained tremendous acceptance for providing wireless broadband connectivity in local area of approximately 100 feet and is mainly used to create hot-spots in commercial complexes, hotels, airports, etc.
Wi-Fi has been quite successful in developed countries and its adoption has become significant in developing counties. Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave access (WiMax) provides wireless access over long distances, delivering point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. This technology is getting popular in Kenya and is expected to take care of the last mile issues in future. 3rd Generation (EVDO/WCDMA/HSPA) is the latest mobile technology which provides considerably higher download speed (minimum transmission rate of 144 kbps in mobile and up to 2 mbps in fixed environment) than the existing 2G/2.5G (GSM/CDMA) technologies.
This technology has been widely and successfully applied across the globe. Excellent applications such as music downloads have been driving the adoption of 3G services in developed Rural Broadband: Which way ahead? countries like Japan.3G technology could help in making broadband available to masses in Kenya as each subscriber would automatically be a broadband enabled subscriber. 3G infrastructures are easily and quickly deployed due to its 2G underlay and can be affordable, not only to the rich class but also to the masses. Such wireless technologies are expected to pace up the broadband growth in Kenya to achieve the next level of telecom revolution.
Majority of semi-urban and rural areas do not have appropriate wire line network for data connectivity. Affordable connectivity to empower rural consumers is critical for the country’s economic growth.
Since setting up a wired communication network across the country demands huge expenditure and a considerable amount of time, the most feasible way to provide broadband access would be through wireless technologies.
But for all this to be possible, PC penetration has to be increased in rural areas. Along with this, basic IT education should be provided. Also, there should be substantial and relevant content for the diversified Kenyan population, without which the success rate of broadband in rural areas would probably be very low.
The government should play a leading role in developing and deploying applications (egovernance, e-education, agricultural services, healthcare services, etc) that could be used by masses especially in rural areas.
Apart from this, service providers should also be encouraged to develop rich local content. Various government projects and corporate initiatives have kicked off to drive the requirement of broadband in rural Kenya. One of such projects/ initiatives is the " digital villages". The Government plans to set up ‘digital villages’ throughout the country in all the 210 constituencies. The aim is to facilitate easy access to information that would trigger economic development in those areas, new opportunities through e-commerce and Rural BPO, among others.
The way ahead
The penetration rate of broadband can be increased by laying emphasis on infrastructure sharing between providers so that the cost of service lowers and thereby becomes affordable for the consumers. Consequently, the issues of poor local-content availability in Kenya should get resolved as bigger broadband subscription numbers are likely to encourage more content providers.
In rural Kenya, inhabitants have been left behind. Rural areas and communities without broadband find it hard to attract business and middle- to upper-class workers who telecommute. Many small towns and rural areas are left behind because they lack the capital to make infrastructure improvements to install high-speed data lines and companies often don’t want to invest in the technology in low-population areas.
The government should make sure that the required spectrum is released and made available for the quick roll out of services. Government must also encourage competition so that more players enter the market. Profitability of service providers and customer welfare cannot go hand in hand. Kenyan customers are price and quality sensitive. So, the broadband boom in Kenya would only happen with the timely and inexpensive deployment of broadband access technology.
This would make the access to broadband much more feasible for the large masses similar to the mobile subscriber boom the country is currently experiencing..
The government must take its position as the leading representative and proponent of universal broadband Internet access for rural communities. More funds need to be appropriated to offer grant program to help fund rural broadband deployments. Government must promote open access, competition, and innovation at the regional and state level for rural broadband access.
Both public/ private investment and partnerships should be encouraged. There is need to develop value-added communication channels to provide timely updates and publications relevant to the industry.
Regular forums for discussion of rural broadband Internet access through conferences and other events suited toward facilitating knowledge dissemination and advocacy coordination need to be established.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Pauline Wangui
Quelle/Source: The Standard, 19.08.2007
