Connect Africa Summit Seeks To Provide 1/3 Africans With Broadband Access by 2012

The Internet’s a wonderful place. It’s a global concoction of cutting-edge tools and services that bring millions together across all seven seas, to do business, to socialize, to share ideas, to share solutions.

Unfortunately, a great many people (the majority of the world, really) don’t have the privilege of access to the great medium that is the World Wide Web, nevermind access to broadband. One continent upon which the vast majority is devoid of virtual resources - be they educational, entertainment-related, corporate-oriented – is Africa.

According to coverage by the BBC of the Connect Africa meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, 4 of every 100 people on the continent have access to the Internet, and of those few, a quarter are connected via broadband, whether through public portals like libraries and cafes, or personal lines.

Those gathered at Connect Africa want to change that. They claim that with a coordinated effort of technology leaders from across the globe, they can meet a very ambitious goal of giving more than one-third of Africa’s population access to broadband – by 2012. That’s about 5 years; or just north of 4 years, really, if the deadline is January 1, 2012.

However one looks at it, the projection seems all but a fantasy. And yet, it’s no doubt worth promoting. Despite the injustices dealt to Africa and its people – by external and internal forces alike – the continent very clearly bears great potential, and it would be to the detriment of its peoples as well as those of North and South America, Europe, and Asia to ignore and pass over the monumental option to bring its various nations into the digital fold, particularly in an era in which the Web is fairly considered the main hub for international commerce.

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is interested in international commerce nowadays, and one would be a fool to think the process of globalization does not include Africa as a main and essential component. Therefore, it’s only natural that a gathering of influential folk in the technology and business sectors plans for a future in which one of the most neglected landmasses on Earth is quite quickly brought “up to speed,” more or less. Such an achievement would help to better the economic health of Africa, and as a result would be (beneficially) impactful worldwide.

Hats off to Connect Africa for planning and striving for a swift solution to Africa’s disconnectedness. This is quite a venture, for sure, and the rewards are innumerable. I personally hope to see the continent as a whole lit up with fiber in coming years.