ADB finances several satellites for high-speed internet

13 October 2010

The African Development Bank has just approved a 50 million dollar loan to finance the construction and launch of several satellites in order to develop access to high-speed internet in Africa.

The project "The Middle Earth Orbit satellites" is intended to reach almost 3 billion people in Africa, Asia and South America.

This operation will enable access to international internet bandwidth at prices much lower than those currently available, reports a press release from the institution.

Only 10 percent of Africans are connected to the Internet, compared with 31 percent in the rest of the world, it was reported last week in Dakar by the head of the telecommunications department of the University of Michigan, Charles Standfield.

"Less than one tenth of the African population has high-speed Internet access", he added, in a quote by the agency APS. He pointed out that, nevertheless, connections are increasing four times faster in Africa than in the rest of the world.
 

Category: ICT