Businesses Expect Internet Costs To Drop, Survey Shows

| Monday September 20, 2010 00:00

The report, released by World Wide Works and Database 360, also revealed that most African countries remained heavily reliant on slow or expensive forms of connectivity, such as dial-up and satellite, but that they were starting to migrate to broadband.

Database 360 interviewed 1, 100 Internet-using small, medium-sized and large business across 20 African countries. World Wide Worx analysed the data and compiled the report. Database 360 MD Louise Robinson said that there was 'little doubt' that the very nature of businesses was changing in this new connectivity era. 'It's amazing to see how the level of Internet usage shoots up wherever the new undersea cables have landed and fibre optic networks have linked the cables to urban centres. The east African countries, especially, are taking to social networking as a business tool to a greater extent than almost anywhere else in Africa.'

The survey highlighted Kenya and Uganda as the biggest African users of social networking for business. However, even landlocked countries that have recently seen major upgrades to their fibre optic networks, such as Botswana and Zambia, are also moving rapidly in this direction.

'ADSL is fast becoming the standard form of business Internet access across Africa, with more than 40 percent of businesses in the 20 African countries surveyed using it,' said World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck.

Countries like Mauritius, the C™te d'Ivoire and Namibia were already showing strong growth in ADSL usage by business, while Angolan businesses indicated the highest anticipated growth for this form of broadband.(Engineeringnews)