Satellite could solve digital divide

Johannesburg, 17 Feb 2004

While much has been made of the so-called digital divide, the reality of the issue is that it is also a capacity and human resource divide.

This is according to David Hartshorn, secretary general of the Global VSAT Forum (GVF). He was discussing ways to overcome this problem at the SatCom Africa 2004 satellite technology conference, taking place at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Hartshorn says the GVF is a non-profit organisation that aims to elevate awareness, provide educational programmes and generally "join the dots" regarding satellite technology and its uses in the developing world.

"In order to do our bit towards bridging the divide, we asked our members for help and - even though it was a time of serious consolidation in the industry - there was a significant response and buy-in from quite a number of them," says Hartshorn.

"Despite my initial worries, our members showed that they were already sustainable in large parts of Africa and claimed that they were at that point effectively working with one hand tied behind their back, since most times they only had a licence to provide data."

"They asked me: imagine what we could do if we were allowed to combine this with voice?"

He says that a number of African authorities have since demonstrated a clear interest in becoming involved with the GVF initiative, including the umbrella regulatory bodies from West, East and Southern Africa.

"We have a commitment from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to provide funding for this project that will match - at a still to be determined ratio - the contributions from the GVF members themselves," he says.

"Local government will grant licences to eligible participants in the project, while the regulators will provide oversight and enforcement of the Universal Service Obligations and Access (USO/USA) which will be associated with the licences."

He says that there is also buy-in from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which will provide a variety of resources to GVF member licensees, who will work with them to roll out USO and USA.

"Some of the NGOs that have expressed interest in the project include Nepad, the African Virtual University, Medical Missions for Children, UNICEF and Oxfam," states Hartshorn.

"The GVF members themselves will provide services such as installation, maintenance, integration services, equipment and bandwidth, while the GVF will provide the co-ordination between members, NGOs, the ITU, local government and the regulators."

"We have the equipment, the technology, the co-operation of the NGOs and local government, so now it's time to make things happen. We've done a lot of talking about it, but now it's time to actually do something about bridging the digital divide."