In 1999 the Center of Informatics of Eduardo Mondlane University
- CIUEM, supported by IDRC installed for the first time in Mozambique,
two pilot Telecentres in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Nowadays,
CIUEM has up and running, eight Telecentres around the country,
with most of them being located in rural zones. Around the Telecentres,
there are several governmental institutions, non-governmental organizations,
bank representations, schools, healthcare centers, and as well some
small - medium scale economic agents. People living in theses zones,
are characterized by a low education level and a high rate of emigration
(mainly in the southern region of the country) to the mining industry,
in South Africa.
The majority of the Telecentres provide people with services such
as e-mail, Internet, telephone, fax, photocopy, document typing
and printing. In some of them, there are available other services
such as computer training, graphical services, TV & Video, and
community radio.
At the time being, the dial-up is the technology in use to provide
Internet connectivity at the Telecentres (with the exception of
one Telecentre which is already using leased line), through the
national telecom company (so far the only company authorized to
provide fixed Telecommunication services in the country), Telecomunicações
de Moçambique - TDM. This technology showed serious constrains,
such as the poor quality of services and the high costs, making
the prices of the e-mail and Internet related services provided
by the Telecentres, unaffordable to the end user, which contributes
to the low number of people in rural communities, making use and
benefiting from these ICT resources. This fact resulted in the need
for the seek of innovative low cost alternative access technologies,
being at the moment, running the installation process of leased
lines in three more Telecentres, while a feasibility analysis of
VSAT technology adoption is in study, in order to improve Internet
connectivity.
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