The ICT Challenge

The Zambian Government recently announced that it is going to use ICT as one of the tools for accelerating development in the country. ICT stands for Information Communication Technology. This incorporates the use of the Internet , Computers , Telephones and other related equipment. In the communication sector the country has made some tremendous strides by the presence of three Cell phone providers with millions of subscribers.

Internet usage on the other hand has been restricted to a few thousand users, most of whom are corporate users who connect via equipment connected to one of the several ISP companies that provide Internet by cable or wireless. For the general public the usage of internet has been restricted to Internet Cafes that are found in most urban and some periurban areas. A few individuals who own multimedia cell phones have access to the internet via the GPRS and , nowadays , EDGE protocols provided by the two of the three Cell phone providers.

To the average citizen the use of internet is limited to sending and receiving e.mail and reading online newspapers and magazines.

Some students in higher institutions of learning use the Internet for study material research.

The main reason why the Internet has not been widely used is because of the prohibitive cost of using it. An average cost of browsing in an Internet Cafe is around $2 per hour. This cost is fixed irrespective of the speed of connection ! For the GPRS and EDGE connections the cost is around $0.25 per Megabyte and is not depended on the time it takes to be connected to the Internet. The two Cell phone providers do sell some modems which can be connected to Personal Computers . Some smart phones can also connect direct to the Internet or can be used as modems for Personal Computers. This is a cheaper form of Internet currently available to the general public.

With the installation of the fibre optic cable by ZESCO and Zamtel around the country, the cost of using Internet is expected to drop sharply in due course.

This will see a greater use of the Internet by the general public to the extend it is used in other countries in America, Europe, Asia and in South Africa. In these countries, Internet is provided to homes via high speed broadband connections at very cheap rates. High speed free Internet is also provided to customers in some restaurants and airports via Wifi connections. There are some places in Zambia where Wifi is available to customers.

The use of Internet is unlimited . It can be used for Internet Marketing , Social Networking and Communication. Nowards most Businesses are run online with minumum use of paper. Online libraries are now becoming popular world wide. The sky is the limit !

The use of ICT in the country is expected to increase sharply during the coming months. It is up to the citizens to make good use of it for business , study and entertainment.

To every good thing there is always the bad side of it. The use of ICT has seen the proliferation of high technology crime. (cyber crime).

Goverment should take measures to train our law enforcement agents in detecting and arresting this new type of crime.

This is our ICT challenge !