Dar to become 5th wireless internet city in Africa Dar es Salaam will anytime soon become the fourth city in East Africa to launch zones of free internet services, with the government selecting Muhimbili National Hospital as the first launching place, The Guardian on Sunday has learnt. The technology would ensure that innovations take centrs stage in public service delivery, whereupon WiFi can potentially transform the city into a health and medical hub for the sub-Saharan region. The revelation was made by Minister for Communication, Science and Technology Prof Makame Mbarawa in an exclusive interview with this paper on the sidelines of the parliamentary budget meeting here. He said the government plans to start with the Muhimbili National Hospital as it is one of the busiest places in the city, accommodating a big number of people everyday, adding that the aim is to roll the service to all other hospitals, big shopping malls in the city in an effort to ensure that people access free internet services. He said plans are ready and service providers are just waiting for the signal from the ministry for the launching of the services at the national referral hospital, expected to take place after the budget session of the National Assembly. “The government has realized that there is serious need of free internet in most of these places and will ensure that the goal is achieved,” said the minister. To confirm that this is true, the minister called an official, head of network services from a mobile phone company expected to install the services at Muhimbili, who confirmed that they are just waiting for the minister. “Yes sir, we are ready to kick start the service as we agreed and are just waiting for you,” the officer’s voice was heard over the phone. Prof Mbarawa noted that after realizing the importance of the service, he convened mobile phone operators in the country and sold the idea to them. The company entrusted with launching the service roll out would not be named until the government was ready to start the service. The minster noted that he was optimistic that other service providers would follow suit as the government plans to provide the same service to other major urban areas like Arusha, Mwanza and Mbeya. Dar becomes the fourth city in East Africa after Kisumu, which received the service in May this year, Nakuru also received it in March while Kigali, the pioneer of the service in the region was connected early this year. Kigali became the first city in East Africa to launch free wireless internet in specific areas of the capital last week under the “Smart Kigali” initiative, joining the ranks of “digital cities” such as Toronto, Houston, Buenos Aires, Bangkok and Taipei. While Tanzania’s free WiFi service is likely to be spearheaded by mobile phone operators, other countries in the region rely on technology incubation centres. Kigali’s Konza TechnoCity has been in the works for several years now and is intended to be an innovation and tech incubation centre serviced by the best ICT infrastructure in East Africa. The delay in building has been blamed on government bureaucracy and confusion over city boundaries. East Africa’s tech start-ups are hosted in small open-plan spaces such as iHub and mLab in Nairobi, KinuHub and TanzICT in Dar es Salaam, and Outbox and Hivacolab in Kampala. Reports show that in the past five years, Rwanda has registered one of the highest Internet user growth rates in Africa with 8,900 per cent compared with the continent’s growth rate of 2,450 per cent and the world average rate of 444 per cent. Rwanda now has an Internet penetration of around 800,000 users and is targeting five million users by 2016. The government strongly believes that information and communications technology can enable Rwanda leap-frog the key stages of industrialisation. In 2010, more than 38.9 per cent of Rwanda’s public sector (ministries, agencies, provinces and districts) and 34.5 per cent of the private sector had a web presence. According to government statistics, there are over 3.1 million mobile subscribers, representing 32 per cent penetration of mobile usage. The country’s Vision 2020 hopes to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country and transition from an agrarian economy into an information-rich, knowledge-based society by 2020.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Jun 2014 16:12:34 +0000
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