Rise in dial-up subscribers in Africa

The number of dial-up Internet subscribers in Africa has risen by 20 percent over the past year, according to a recent report on Africa Online.

Africa has close to 1.7 million dial-up subscribers in total, 1.2 million of which are based in North Africa and South Africa.

The 49 Sub-Saharan African countries have just 500,000 dial-up Internet subscribers between them, according to the report.

There are now about 39 countries in Africa with 1000 or more subscribers, 20 countries with more than 5000 subscribers, and 16 countries with 10,000 or more subscribers.

The study indicates that because of the large number of shared accounts, and the high use of public access services in Africa, it is difficult to measure the total numbers of Internet users in the continent.

While the number of dial-up Internet subscribers are easily obtainable, itís estimated that each computer with an Internet connection usually supports a range of three to five users, meaning that the total number of African Internet users is anywhere between five and eight million.

The report indicates that between 1.5 ñ 2.5 million Internet users are based in the 49 Sub-Saharan African countries.

Shared/public access and the use of corporate networks is growing at a faster rate than the number of dial up users, according to the study.

Most African capitals now have more than one ISP, and in mid 2002 there were about 560 public ISPs across the region (excluding South Africa).

The average total cost of using a local dial-up Internet account for 20 hours a month in Africa is about USD60.