Growth in
Africa’s Internet and broadband sector has accelerated in recent years. While
being the world’s most rapidly growing market for mobile telephony. Africa is also the home to some of the fastest growing
fixed-line market in the world. Believe it or not until mid-2010 mobile users
constituted around 90% of all African telephone subscribers due to problem in penetration of the physical network
into vast lands of the continent. The most targeted group is the lower income
group since they are sensitive to the market the telecommunication companies
have been struggling to lower their tariffs and come up with packages which
will attract more customers.
Tanzania
ranking 6th position in Africa in terms of the number of internet users with
around 4.9 million users as per December 2011 internet world stats you might
say yes we are doing it we are above almost 40 African countries in terms of
internet access but the questions that pop into our mind should be what is the
proportion of 4.9million compared to the total population of Tanzania which is
approximately 40 million people you will find out only 12 percent of our total
population are subscribed to the internet which is the main source of
technology advancement and communication.
The
challenge that comes up is that the remaining eighty something percent remain
unreached with the internet access. Internet is becoming the basic need of the
human being that why this is called the information age. People needing access
to the internet becoming inevitable but how are the government and the ICT
community of Tanzania coping up with the situation.
Having
limited people who can access the internet is among the major challenges in the
advancement of the technology industry. People are coming up with creative and
massive ideas everyday but the problem is how we can reach the audience using
technology if only 12 percent of the total population have access to the
internet and sometimes is not even proper internet access.
The
dreams of e- learning and knowledge sharing through technology are becoming
almost next to impossible due to the limited access of the internet. Thanks God
the emergency of m-learning (mobile learning) which is proposed to be practiced
in some other African country such as Ghana.
It is our
responsibility has individuals to come up with ideas which will enhance the
accessibility of the internet everywhere in our country from rural areas to
urban areas. The accessibility of the internet will increase the market for our
products and innovative ideas online.
Consider having an application which is able to anticipate the different
seasons of the year which is very useful to farmers but it is available online
although the idea is great and impacts the community directly but only few with
internet access will be able to buy or utilize the application and most of the
population of the people who are located in cities and towns are not farmers
hence your goal will fail due to the limited access of Internet.
We should
set a goal by 2015 the number of internet users in Tanzania should double the
current number so that we can chase our neighbors Kenya. This is possible if
every one of us local ICT communities and the government in general we will be
ready to invest in technology and challenge the speed of growth of the Industry. The increase in number of
internet users will help Tanzania government to reach people easily and in time
and deal with their problems effectively.
By
Jumanne Mtambalike
TECH360
Correspondent