Nairobi - African governments should break Internet monopolies to help lower the price of access, the body in charge of assigning online addresses said on Tuesday.
Rod Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said while 15 percent of the world's population lives in Africa, Africans made up less than seven percent of all Internet users.
"We really need the African leaders to shatter monopolies because it is a bitter irony that in Africa there are some of the poorest people in the world paying the some of the highest prices," said Beckstrom.
Continues Below↓Many Africa countries score the lowest possible result in a technology ranking by the World Bank due to low incomes, weak regulation, limited competition and lack of private investment.
Beckstrom said the late arrival of key information technologies in Africa was likely to reduce the cost for many countries. "The most positive aspect of Africa putting its technology infrastructure later is that they will get the best technology at a much cheaper price."
Beckstrom, in Kenya to attend the 37th ICANN meeting, also said it was moving to help Africa countries which were more prone to cyber crimes.
"Their systems can be and are often get attacked and we are running a security program with 20 Africa countries to help them reduce cyber crimes," he said.
The World Bank says there are 10 undersea cables either under construction or in the planning stages in Africa, which could push down international bandwidth rates and increase the number of broadband users.
US-based advisory firm AfricaNext Investment Research expects Africa's broadband market to grow to 12,7 million users in five years from 2,7 million in 2007. - Reuters
