The Internet in Zimbabwe is collapsing
It's getting very hard to email folks in Zim lately...here's why:
"Zimbabwe's international satellite link has been cut off after the national telephone company failed to pay a $710 000 (about R5,4-million) debt in a move that experts warn could spell the collapse of the Internet in the country.
The managing director of Tel-One, the country's sole fixed line phone company, told the state-controlled Herald newspaper that the company had been disconnected from the key Intelsat link.
He added that Tel-One was rerouting Zimbabwe's Internet traffic through other means, resulting in a service slowdown. There are around 500 000 Internet users in the country of 11,6 million people."
Zimbabwe is neck-and-neck with Iraq on economic matters:
Zimbabwe is in its sixth year of economic recession, marked by inflation of more than 1200 percent, acute shortages of foreign currency, fuel and medicines, as well as spiralling poverty and social hardships.
That 1200% inflation number isn't a typo. It was close to 2300% for a while.
About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
About Newsletter
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=72&release=403
Freedom of information is typically not high on dictators' priority lists...
www.ksg.harvard.edu/news/opeds/2003/power_kill_country_am_1203.htm
She was also a guest on the late WBUR radio program The Connection talking about it:
www.theconnection.org/shows/2003/12/20031211_a_main.asp
Unbelieveable, it's three years later and things have actually gotten worse.
Comments are closed.
The World Bank's report on doing business in Zimbabwe offers some interesting insight as well:
http://www.doingbusiness.org/ExploreEconomies/?economyid=208