Weekly News Roundup - Africa October 8

Created By: Esther on 8-Oct-2007 12:00 AM

Africa's Digital Villages Receive a Boost
Telecommunications equipment supplier Ericsson in partnership with Columbia's University's Earth Institute has set aside Sh600 million to connect African villages to the information super highway. The Millennium Villages project as the initiative is known is currently underway in different African countries.The African digital villages' project is taking the form of mobile telephony and the roll-out of internet facilities. The pilot phase of the project involves 80 villages in 10 African countries whose long-term ambition is to take mobile telecommunications and the internet to more than 400,000 people living in rural African communities.


Focus on People, Education, and Information Technology make country unique
In a press conference held on Wednesday at the Tunis Carthage airport, at the end of a short visit to Tunisia , Microsoft CEO Mr Steve Ballmer, said that "The focus on people, education, and information technology is quite unique from the President and the leadership of Tunisia , compared with many countries in the world".
The press conference concluded a two day working visit in Tunisia during which Mr Ballmer was received by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. He also met with Tunisia 's ministers of higher education and scientific research, education and vocational training , and communication technologies to discuss partnership between Tunisia and the US company.

Creating digital cities in South Africa
City councils had a moral duty to spend money rolling out broadband networks to cover all their citizens, in the same way that they had a duty to provide water, sewerage and electricity, speakers at a technology conference last week. The right to broadband internet access and affordable phone calls was just as great as the right to other municipal services. Any government that did not fulfil that need was doing its citizens disservice, speakers said. Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban municipalities are assessing projects to create digital cities by blanketing the area with a wireless network to carry voice and data traffic.


PC Assembly Plant for Kenya
The telecommunications regulator, the Communications Commissions of Kenya (CCK) has released funds worth Sh10 million to two technology institutions to facilitate the establishment of a proposed local assembly point for computers under an initiative called 'madaraka'. The two institutions are Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and the Kenya College of Communications Technology. The two have been mandated to assemble local computer units with the aim of providing quality and affordable PC's to the market.

Viruses 'hit 1m China computers'
Three different types of viruses attacked computers during the holiday week, Xinhua news agency said.
It is not the first time China's web users have faced problems recently.
A Pacific earthquake damaged undersea cables earlier this year, slowing down internet lines and forcing many people to start using their old fax machines.

 

 

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