Background

The rapid expansion of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing countries is exacerbating imbalances in the Digital Divide. While developed countries catapult on the track of technological advancement, poorer nations remain more and more vulnerable to exploitation. At the high school and university levels there is an urgent need for capacity building. The need and role of computers is well understood, and their usage becomes more and more prevalent; however, the problem of insufficient CPU power and expensive connections is felt more in developing countries than anywhere else. The minimum commercial software kit needed to use a PC for web and office applications is simply unaffordable to the average person in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or Latin America. Moreover, cost is not the only obstacle: a large proportion of the computing resources in the developing world is below the minimum requirements to run modern commercial software. A 600MHz Pentium II, with 256M RAM is a typical computer in many African Internet cafés. These machines are stuck with Windows 95 or 98 at best, which are no longer supported, and this makes it impossible to add new peripherals (no drivers), or replace parts. Many small businesses, as well as schools and even administration setups face shutdown due to costly maintenance. They can no longer repair faulty systems, and they cannot afford to upgrade their hardware and software.

Accessing the web in isolated and poorly connected areas, which means 90% of Africa, is also prohibitive. Due to geographical, demographic and political factors, modern connectivity methods (ADSL) are not implementable everywhere. A whole range of solutions can be found in the field, and very often their choice is not the optimal one for that situation, but the most immediately available. Satellite antennae are very common in rural areas. They are practical to install, but very expensive to operate. Another obstacle to lowering the connectivity costs comes from poor network topology caused by a lack of planning at the international level. Political problems between neighbouring countries are often a barrier to collaboration in planning a structured network development optimised for a given geographical and demographic reality. UN agencies are working on this problem, but very often a simple and cheaper solution can be found by acting locally, on a case by case method.