Connectivity Providers Database

Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 14:35:55 +0100 From: newport <newport@congonet.cg> To: Steven G Huter <sghuter@nsrc.org> Subject: Internet Status Report in Brazzaville Congo Current Status of Internet access in Brazzaville, Congo After having spoken with 1) the Commercial Director and the 2) Associate Technical Director (the Administrator in presently in South Africa) of the Internet activity at the PTT ('ONPT') I can provide you with the following information regarding the domain here: - Internet is accessible to all sectors of the general public - The sectorial breakdown of users is roughly as follows: 1) Private companies/businesses - 60% of total; 2) government agencies - 15%; 3) Embassies - 10%; 4) Individual home users - 10%; 5) Religious organizations - 5%. - The total number of users is not more than 70 presently - Pricing info: Three categories - 1) Individuals = 42,000 FCFA* installation and the same monthly for unlimited access; 2) 'Small Enterprises' = 75,000 FCFA installation plus 90,000 monthly; 3) 'Large Enterprises' (Embassies and international organizations included!) = 150,000 to install plus 180,000 monthly. * Note: these prices don't include 18% taxes. Dollar conversion: $1 to almost 700 FCFA at present. Prospects for growth : the above persons look forward to doubling the number of clients here in Brazzaville within a year. Conditioning factors: purchases of PCs (they're very expensive here and the economy is struggling back to its feet after its recent history of civil wars); installed phone lines (a second central switcher should be back on its feet within a month - roughly doubling available lines, the existing one is accommodating about 3,500 subscribers); the quality of the existing phone network (cables around town) which is not in very fit shape; server expansion capacity - presently we're running on only 128 K, but the technician said bandwidth could be easily jacked up to 2 Megs. Yours truly - John newport@congonet.cg