<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt">just to let you know that we have closed the debate on free PC's et al<br><br>please focus the debate on the ongoing discussion on interconnectivity, local content.. et al<br><br>here is the latest comment by Michuki<br><br>have your say....<br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Michuki Mwangi <michuki@kenic.or.ke><br>To: rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com<br>Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 1:44:39 PM<br>Subject: Re: [kictanet] Day 2 Internet Study- International & Domestic Bandwidth Usage<br><br><div>Hi Walu,<br><br><br>John Walubengo wrote:<br>> The Internet Study says that of the about 1G International<br>> International Bandwidth only 10% is
outbound while 90% is<br>> inbound. What this mean is that kenya is a net IMPORTER of<br>> internet content. In internet economic terms we are<br>> therefore consumers rather than generators of internet<br>> content - which is a bad thing. Value is always retained<br>> by those who generate rather than just consume internet<br>> content i.e. the exporters of internet content.<br>><br><br>Less than 50% of the International content is relevant to us yet it<br>makes up 90% of our inbound traffic. That means that there is a<br>potential of more than 50% percent of local content yet to be realised<br>and monetized.<br><br><br>>What can be done to get that to happen? <br><br>IMHO, i see the following as key catalysts to the growth of local<br>content in order to change the status quo. Before we think of exporting<br>content, we need to have sufficient & relevant local content to the users.<br><br>1) ISPs & Service
providers need to introduce creative products that<br>focus more on local content. For instance an unlimited Internet<br>connection for kshs 1,000 giving one unlimited local access per month.<br>By local access means - can access any locally hosted website and send<br>emails off a local web-based mail system. With affordability but lack of<br>sufficient local content will spur;<br><br> o creation of local user generated content<br> o Better information on local corporate websites<br> o Introduction of local online Gaming & entertainment<br> o Introduction of online Services i.e banking, shopping, e-gov<br><br>2) Looking at the graphs availed (KIXP stats). The stats (picks and<br>drops) are replayed across the International circuits at night and<br>weekends for all operators. Thus the service providers need to monetize<br>their services in Megabit per Second. This will mean that
they can offer<br>lower traffic rates i.e kshs 1,000 per month for unlimited Internet from<br>7pm to 7am and full weekends and national holidays.<br><br>Looking at points 1 & 2 above it would be feasible (please note the<br>values are just hypothetical) to have unlimited local and international<br>night access for Kshs 2,000 per month for x Kbps of capacity.<br><br>As the enterprising citizens of Kenya have found ways of monetizing<br>SMS's - the same would apply to web content, email etc. Of course this<br>would spawn off issues of net-neutrality but then we would be more<br>conversant with the issues.<br><br><br>3) As a first step towards e-learning, if the academic sector would<br>(initially the colleges and universities) have all student assignments,<br>essays, reports etc submited online with the internally graded results<br>being posted & accessed online. In essence it will trigger a demand for<br>both computing and Internet resources. Being local content the
above<br>products 1 & 2 can serve the day-scholars and the boarders probably<br>paying a flat rate of Kshs 500 per month for unlimited access to the<br>university online resources and local Internet. As a result this will spur;<br> o Academic/Scientific research content & traffic<br> o enhance e-learning products and services<br> o User generated content<br> o Local social online networks.<br><br><br>In summary, the infrastructure providers will keep investing as long as<br>there's a business case. So far, there is immense Internet<br>infrastructure capacity on the ground and more being laid out. But quite<br>honestly its highly underutilized. The situation may not change<br>significantly if special focus and emphasis is given to availability of<br>local and RELEVANT content. Kenya is amongst the only two countries in<br>Africa that have the core elements of the Internet
locally namely the<br>DNS Root Servers (F and J), the main TLD Root Servers (.KE, .COM and<br>.NET) and a Gigabit capacity Exchange point. We need to take advantage<br>of these resources and infrastructure sooner rather than later.<br><br><br>> 1 day discussion on this theme, the floor is open... <br>> <br><br>Pole this comes more later than the set time.<br><br>my 2 cents,<br><br>-- <br>Michuki Mwangi<br>KENIC<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>kictanet mailing list<br>kictanet@kictanet.or.ke<br><a target="_blank" href="http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet">http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet</a><br><br>Please unsubscribe or change your options at <a target="_blank" href="http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/rebeccawanjiku%40yahoo.com">http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/rebeccawanjiku%40yahoo.com</a><br></div></div><br></div></div><br>
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