Africa's Internet gap getting wider

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Broadband Internet connections in Africa are expected to more than double by 2011, but the continent is falling further behind the rest of the world as governments fail to open markets and drive down costs.

High-speed Internet connections in Africa -- including DSL, WiMax and wireless technologies such as 3G -- are likely to rise to 7 million by 2011 from 3 million now, according to a recent report by South African research group BMI-TechKnowledge.

That compares with almost 70 million connections already in European Union countries. The gap means broadband services will be inaccessible to all but a few rich and privileged Africans, which is likely to deter needed foreign investment.

"Africa is very far behind the rest of the world, and it seems that the gap will only get bigger unless something is done," BMI telecoms analyst Richard Hurst, who co-authored the report, told Reuters.

Less than 1 percent of Africans have access to broadband services due to a lack of international connectivity and unwieldy monopolies, compared with 22 percent of Americans and 30 percent of western Europeans, Hurst said. More than three-quarters of Internet connections in Africa are dial-up.

North Africans are the most Internet-savvy on the continent, because governments have liberalized telecoms sectors, while Internet service providers can get access to a number of undersea cables thanks to their proximity to Europe.

But in East Africa, broadband is virtually non-existent, because there is no undersea cable linking countries to the rest of the world, forcing ISPs to rely on expensive and unreliable satellite connections.

EAST AFRICAN CABLE DELAY

East African countries are meant to be building an undersea cable, but the project has stalled. While other companies, including India's Reliance Communications <RLCM.BO>, have expressed interest in laying a rival cable, the project will take time.

Poor Internet access and high costs are preventing countries such as Kenya from nurturing call-centre outsourcing industries, which could provide thousands of jobs.

Even in South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse, state-controlled fixed-line operator Telkom <TKGJ.J> has a stranglehold over the telecoms market, keeping DSL connections -- a technology that enables broadband access through standard copper phone wires -- to some 200,000, just 0.4 percent of the population.

Hurst said there was some hope, noting that a lack of fixed-line infrastructure had forced African countries to adopt new technologies relatively quickly.

South Africa already has about as many wireless broadband Internet connections -- mostly via mobile operators Vodacom and MTN <MTNJ.J> -- as DSL subscriptions.

And of the 7 million broadband connections forecast across the continent by 2011, 3.3 million are expected to be wireless or fixed wireless -- using technologies such as WiMax.

"Africa is unique in the sense that almost half of broadband connections are wireless or fixed wireless," said Hurst. "Key (for growth) is creating an open environment where operators of these new technologies can drive costs down."