La révolution des T.I.C. : du téléphone à Internet (The ICT revolution : from phones to the Internet)

摘要

The true revolution in the world of telecommunications and the Internet that took place over the past fifteen years has reached all of Africa. Previously, networks of fixed line under the monopoly of the State, were poorly distributed, intermittent with bad services and at a very hight cost. Then, technological innovations, coupled with lower costs and competition, contrary to all expectations, provoked an explosion of mobile telephony. New networks are deployed for internal and external connection of the continent and a territorial development of digital technology for broadband Internet is underway. In terms of uses, an African model has been created and a new informal economy of retail and opportunities, with the mutualization of accesses, meets the specific needs of low-income populations. But the offensive of the operators to impose the mobile phone at the expense of the fixed one, making it the vector of the Internet and a multi purpose tool, may result in reduced public access and prohibitive costs for the poorest. Nowadays, references to «here » and «elsewhere » , «near » and «distant » , have become blurred, and the role of diasporas is strengthening.