ISOC

Summit Seeks to Connect Communities in Africa to the Global Internet

Dodoma, Tanzania–30 October, 2019 – The Internet Society and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) in partnership with the University of Dodoma announced today that the Fourth Annual Community Networks Summit is being held in Dodoma, Tanzania from 28 October – 2 November 2019.

Community Networks are “do-it-yourself” telecommunications networks built by local communities and are a way to get connectivity to underserved urban, remote and rural areas where commercial service providers may not find it viable.

In Tanzania, there are  43.7 million voice telephone subscriptions and only 23.1 million Internet users. This gap is also reflected in Internet access in rural and urban areas with 86% of rural dwellers unconnected compared to 44.6% in urban areas.

To help address the growing need for communication and broadband access in rural areas, the University of Dodoma and the Internet Society (ISOC) Tanzania Chapter collaborated to build a Community Network to bring Internet access to Kondoa, a rural and underserved area in Dodoma region of Tanzania. The network connects educational institutions in Kondoa and provides fast Internet access to community members around the host institutions.

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