Connectivity problems in your area? The govt to help you solve them yourselves through community networks

If you’re reading this then you have internet access. Count yourself amongst the fortunate in Zimbabwe. 

The latest figures from POTRAZ say the country’s internet penetration rate stood at 62.3% in Q3 2021. 

62.3% may not sound too bad but consider that over 90% of internet usage in the country is via mobile data and yet only 58.8% of households have a smartphone. 

Most of those households with access to the internet are in the urban areas despite the fact that only about a third of Zimbabweans live in urban areas.

This is the so-called digital divide and we need to be proactive if we are to bridge it. 

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not the solution

Okay, ISPs will always be a part of the solution but we cannot count on them to initiate anything. The reason why rural communities are left behind is that it doesn’t make commercial sense for ISPs to deploy infrastructure in remote and sparsely populated areas.

Telecommunications infrastructure is expensive to acquire and roll out. So ISPs only look to locations that are densely populated by households that can afford to use the internet.

Unfortunately that means sparsely populated rural areas where the average family earns only US$75 per month will not get any service. 

Only smaller and nimbler companies/cooperatives can solve such problems which are beneath the larger corporations Or maybe the govt can too.

The govt to the rescue

The government recognises this and, through POTRAZ, are building base stations in those areas that private entities won’t service. 

They tax mobile network operators to create a Universal Service Fund (USF). Then use those funds to deploy infrastructure in those places that it makes no commercial sense to build in.

POTRAZ has built community information centers, distributed computers to schools and hospitals etc too. 

However, like in everything else, the best way to connect rural dwellers does not involve the government. We only need the govt to move out of the way and private enterprises and communities themselves can solve the aforementioned connectivity problems.

Community networks

The Internet Society says:

Community networks (CNs) are networks built in a collaborative, bottom-up fashion by groups of individuals who develop and manage new network infrastructure as common goods. CNs are created by communities or organized groups that decide to share a telecommunications service through their own network. Their infrastructure is built, managed, operated, and administered by a community-driven organization or by a community itself by pooling their existing resources and working with partners to start-up and scale their activities.

The Internet Society

We do have a community network in Zimbabwe and it has been hailed as a success. It provides internet access to thousands in Murambinda and surrounding areas. The Murambinda Works project (Vision Internet) has been operational for years and it now covers over 108,000 people who would otherwise have been left behind.

The govt has taken notice and is heeding calls to promote community networks. POTRAZ says they want to open community networks in every province and so are inviting all those interested in solving the connectivity problem to apply. 

There is profit to be made and problems to be solved so spread the word.