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The Future Of Africa's Internet [Ventures Africa](Ventures Africa Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) VENTURES AFRICA – Just like cell phones, soon nobody will remember life without the internet. Next to toilet paper, the internet is probably the more complex, yet simplest user interface connection of technologies, ever invented. Gartner, a global IT consultancy, reckons we could have 26 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020. Others estimate 30 billion, while Cisco Systems, expects there to be just fewer than 50 billion. Not long ago, the number of "things" connected to the internet was over 12.4 billion – sure and especially in consumerism driven emerging economies like in Africa, this has grown. We have over 600 million mobile phones on the African continent. By 2015 there will be more than 1.2 billion internet users from BRICS countries alone. Facebook now has 100 million users in Africa – 80% connect via mobile devices. As we see the simple connections to the internet grow, the complexity of managing the internet is evolving into an international quagmire for policy makers. Many governments want a form hand in its control and governance. The end-users the world over, however seem to feel that a multi-stakeholder approach to input and the future of the internet is needed. Tianjin, the People's Republic of China, today the Chinese governments only International Telecommunications Union conference in October may let governments set the rules of the internet and push other stakeholders to the side, warned US official, Lawrence Strickling. "What has driven the internet is the absence of government in much of the process," said Strickling, who is Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), USA. "We need to find a way to keep governments participating, but must take great care to avoid having governments take over." China, now accounts for one out of every five internet users worldwide, is in support of multi-stakeholder decision-making, said Lu Wei, Minister, Cyberspace Administration of the People’s Republic of China. "We must seek common ground while serving our differences." As usual though, it was iterated that national sovereignty must be respected. If we consider the main instigators that triggered the focus on internet scrutiny, those being Edward Snowden and prior to him, Julian Assange, we understand why even the US is slowly tightening its grip over the internet. In the US it is not only the internet but also all mobile transmissions that have everybody around the spooked. "Freedom and order are twins," he said. "But your freedom should not come at the pain of others. We need to have public security. We need to respect the laws and regulations of host countries to ensure the orderly development of the internet." The US has been found, in the eyes of the world and world leaders, guilty of spying on them via telecommunication wire-tapping. Fadi Chehade, Chief Executive Officer, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), USA, urged governments, civil society, the business community, technologists and all parties to work together. "We don't need 15 years to finalize a treaty," he said. "Some solutions are local, some are global. We have to accept and understand this reality." Paul E. Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm, USA; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2014, floated the idea of a "Different", the world of the internet requires a trust-based alternative that will not be replaced, but work alongside, the current internet. Fundamentally, the internet, brings great benefits, especially to emerging markets, yet leaves many security threats. These threats stem from inside government agencies, between countries i.e. China and US hacking scandals that have consumed recent relations, threats to corporates from the hacking underworld, medical systems that use the internet and threats to air travel systems. "The internet is not one thing," said Anne Bouverot, Director-General and Member of the Board, GSMA, United Kingdom. "There should be a certain set of rules and governance for access to information, another set for ecommerce, still another set for healthcare. If an internet-connected medical device is controlling my insulin level, I don't want anyone to hack into that." Ultimately the rise in innovative solutions has brought a rise in the testing algorithms that hackers have to test themselves mentally and technically to remain relevant. Each technology with its coding strings have to be tested by hackers. It's the way of the internet underworld. The rise of innovation brings a rise in threats. Flipping the coin around, technology and the internet have huge merits for development in emerging economies and this in itself – besides the fact the basically innovation brings huge profits – serves as reason to assert collective policy development. Ericsson predicts 930 million mobile subscriptions in sub-Saharan Africa with 55 million smartphone and 710 million broadband subscriptions, by the end of 2019. Cohesively, this will make governments in Africa jittery about the expanding role of not only criminal activity using wireless networks, but also the ever-expanding and very real threat of terrorism in Africa. Thus far, it is governments who have set the bar for internet policy – much to their own dismay and failure to stem the tide of terrorism threats and illegal use. As it stands the internet is has about the same range as the known universe. Its control thus rests in various aspects of control and monitoring. Stemming the tide of terrorism rests within the already active policy frameworks for traffic control over the internet. For example, freedom of speech, location and profiling as already is, will be the future of not only how policy is developed, but for who it is developed. (c) 2014 Ventures Africa. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |