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Africa
Edited by Anthony Olden [University of West London, UK]
Introduction
Approximately 3 million out of Ethiopia's estimated population of 80 million live in Addis Ababa, capital of the one country in Africa that managed to escape European colonisation apart from five years (1936-1941) under Benito Mussolini's Italy. Today Addis Ababa hosts the headquarters of the African Union. ICT service is concentrated in the capital: 60 per cent of the country's telephone subscribers and 79 per cent of its broadband customers. Although the information and communication technology (ICT) industry has been liberalised in much of Africa, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) remains its country's sole provider.
According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics, Ethiopia had over 900,000 fixed telephone lines in 2010. As elsewhere in Africa, mobile telephone usage is increasing at an enormous rate: from 1.95 million subscribers in 2008 to 4.05 million in 2009 to 6.85 million in 2010. According to the ITU 8.26 per 100 inhabitants have a mobile cellular subscription. This may seem impressive until one looks up the ITU figures for other countries in Eastern Africa: Tanzania has 46.8 subscribers per 100 inhabitants, while Kenya has 61.63. The percentage of people using the internet in Ethiopia is tiny (0.75 per cent) by comparison with the others: Tanzania (11 per cent) and Kenya (25.9 per cent) ([4] ITU, 2012).
ICT's role in development and poverty reduction
National and international organisations have identified ICT's role for development and poverty reduction. The United Nations (UN) recognises this and passed resolution 56/258 ([16] United Nations, 2001):
Information and communication technologies are among the critical determinants for creating a global knowledge-based economy, accelerating growth, raising competitiveness, promoting sustainable development, eradicating poverty and facilitating the effective integration of all countries into the global economy.
The [17] World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) (2003) declared its desire and commitment:
To build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information society, where everyone can create, access, utilise, and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
WSIS identified...