Access to the Global Internet: A Local Zimbabwean Experience
- 1. 1 June, 2016 Access to the Global Internet: A Local Zimbabwean Experience! Rural people access the internet for the very first time through the Community Information Centre concept.
- 2. Rural Zimbabwe ✤ Zimbabwe has a population of approximately 14 million. ✤ Approximately 60% of the population resides in the rural areas. ✤ Active mobile penetration rate is 95.4% as at 31 December 2015. ✤ Active internet penetration rate is 48.1% as at 31 December 2015.
- 6. Traffic and Usage Patterns ✤ A total of 3,682,860,182 megabits of data were consumed on mobile networks in 2015, a 117% increase on 2014 data consumption. ✤ 37% of internet data was consumed through WhatsApp (34%) and Facebook (3%) bundled service offerings. ✤ Internet Access Providers generated US$148 million in revenues, up 26.6% on 2014 figures.
- 7. Investment in Infrastructure ✤ Internet Access Providers invested US$63 million in infrastructure in the year 2015, an increase of 64% on investments made in 2014. ✤ At the close of 2015, the country had a total of 4,079 (677 installed in 2015*) 2G base stations, 1,920 (*396) 3G stations and 312 (*292) 4G-LTE stations.
- 8. National Backbone Fibre Network ✤ The total length of backbone fibre network totalled 6,964 kilometres, with 323 kilometres installed in 2015. The 2015 installations were done through a private network. ✤ Equipped symmetrical incoming/outgoing internet bandwidth increased by 49.1% in 2015 to reach 19,864 Mbps. 15,705Mbps was utilised for incoming and 4,710Mbps for outgoing. Zimbabwe is clearly a net recipient of content and traffic.
- 9. Community Access to Internet-surfing The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in partnership with ZimPost
- 10. Access from the Bottom-up ✤ At the bottom of the pyramid, users in Zimbabwe are still faced with limited access to the internet. ✤ The demand for data and internet services is expected to more than double in 2016. Driven by consumer appetite for digital solutions that are affordable and convenient.