ICANN CEO Blasts African Telecom Monopolies
The CEO of the group that manages the Internet address system Monday urged African leaders to take steps to "shatter" telecommunications monopolies in their nations to help lower the price of Internet access to their citizens. During opening remarks at the start of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Rod Beckstrom argued that the Internet can be an important tool for development but it is being hampered by high rates of access in Africa.
"If you have a monopoly what do you have? You have the most expensive Internet access rates in the world and where are those? Largely in Africa," Beckstrom said. "How can the poorest people on earth pay the highest rates for Internet access. It's an incredible brake on development."
It was one four challenges Beckstrom urged Africa's leaders to take on when they meet Tuesday at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which is taking place at the same conference center as ICANN's meeting. The group of six East African nations is focused on increasing coordination of development and drought control measures.
The other issues he urged the African leaders to address include dispelling myths being circulated in Africa that the new Internet addresses created by the next-generation Internet protocol IPv6 are not available to Africans; to urge more African countries to participate in ICANN by joining its Government Advisory Committee; and to view the Internet as more than just an "industrial structure but please view it as a platform for development."
Beckstrom noted that while 15 percent of the world's population lives in Africa, Africans make up less than 7 percent of all Internet users. "The internet ... is perhaps the most sustainable platform for development," he said.
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