Internet in TOGOInternet in TOGO

By Adiel AKPLOGANBy Adiel AKPLOGAN

C@Fenet

CAFE Informatique & Telecommunications

AFNOG Meeting Mai 2001AFNOG Meeting Mai 2001

IntroductionIntroductionTogo at glanceTogo at glance

• West Africa country• Population: 4.5 Million• area: 56.000 sq. Km• Rural Population: 71%• Urban Population: 21%• Growth rate of urban population: 6.1%• Capital: LOME

• Principal cities :Lome (700.000 inhabitants), Sokode (51.000 inhabitants), Kara (30.000 inhabitants), Kpalime (30.000 inhabitants)

HistoryHistory

• 1992: first usage of Internet in Togo through ORSTOM and RIO (only used by French scientifics).

• End 1995: First usage by general public. • Powered by CAFÉ Informatique (a private

company) through a BBS connected to Internet (NCS Ghana) via uucp (6 users).

•Earlier 1996: First academic Internet access on the Campus by Syfed (AUPELF/UREF project - this was an uucp connection over an X25 link)

• September 1996: first local web server and smtp mail server under Linux (35 users). The ccTLD « .TG » was delegate to CAFE Informatique.

History History (continue)(continue)

• 1997: Full IP connection via a VSAT link (64/128) to the Internet by CAFÉ Informatique & Telecommunications. It offer all internet services and was the only one public ISP of the country.

• Earlier 1998: The local telecommunications company (Togo Telecom) lunch his own internet node project and put it online in Mars 1998. They position themselves as access only provider (with 128/128 Kbps link to Internet via MCI). They enroll most of the computer services company to be ISP and give them a 64Kps LS free for 6 months

TodayToday

Today, 4 year after the full connectivity, the growth of the internet is become very impressive.

• A recent study by the America Cultural Center, show that there are over 40.000 regular internet users in the country, and over 5.000 local access created by the 13 ISPs!

• Two links 1 Mbps (CAFEnet) and 1Mbps (TogoTelecom).

• A regulatory Authority for telecommunications was installed by the government.

One year agoOne year ago

Today (Cafenet)Today (Cafenet)

CAFÉ Informatique

PAS3

INTERPACKET

POP II LOME Centre

ECOWAS FOUND

BTCI

BOAD

ESIBA

AGN

CEB

1 Mbps/512kbpsE1 (2Mbps)1.2 Mbps shared Wireless

Education CyberCafe ISP Private Co. NGO

MULTIMEDIA

Elite

SAD

EXPLOR@ HERCUL

GMF

ECOBANK

USEMBASY

64 Kbps

32 lines

92 lines

Togotelecom

Cyb

ercafe

TELECEL

Today (Togotelecom)Today (Togotelecom)

IMET

Sprint LinkTogo Telecom

Cyb

ercafe160 lines

NetCom

CAFEnet

Education CyberCafe ISP Private Co. NGO 64 Kbps

British Shcool

1 Mbps/512kbps

SYFED

UBBIB

DEFI

IDS Techno

LORDAF

GTI

CR

CIC

SOFTNET

UNDP

CCT

Vo Kaya

MULTIMEDIA

FA2F

CYBERCOM

BTD

CostsCosts

• Dial up acces: – $8 to $50 /month for unlimited acces

• Leased Line: • Togo Telecom : $1000 - $1300 /month• C@Fenet : $800 /month - Wireless connection • 25% to 50% dicount for Education usage

Some StatisticsSome Statistics

• Growth of users

Date Users Web sites ISP Education

Jan-96 4 0 1

Dec-96 35 2 2 1

Mar-97 50 3 2 1

Jun-97 56 4 2 1

Dec-97 150 4 2 1

Mar-98 600 6 3 3

Jun-98 750 9 7 3

Dec-98 1200 15 10 3

Mar-99 1600 19 11 4

Sep-99 2300 32 13 4

Dec-99 3000 47 15 4

Jan-00 3550 58 16 4

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

Jan-

96

Jul-9

6

Jan-

97

Jul-9

7

Jan-

98

Jul-9

8

Jan-

99

Jul-9

9

Jan-

00

Série1

Statistics (continue)Statistics (continue)

Religionsociété privée et

ParapubliqueONG education

Organisation International

ePersonnel Total

nombre 150 2 100 62 500 800 460 4 072

% 4% 52% 2% 12% 20% 11% 100,00%

Ville Lomé Tabligbo Dapaong Kara Sokodé Kpalime Atakpamé Autre4072

Nombre 3500 18 7 170 100 142 35 10086% 0% 0% 4% 2% 3% 1% 2%

nombre4%

51%

2%

12%

20%

11%

87%

0%

0%5% 2% 3% 1% 2%

Internet SocietyInternet Society• Late 1997: Idea of Internet Society chapter

creation (first meeting: April 1998 with 6 persons) by Adiel AKPLOGAN and Alain AINA.– First problem come from other ISP thinking that, it will be an

association formed by a Company (as the initiative come from CAFÉ workers) to enrol all the internet user to use there node.

– No comprehension by other Actor (essentialy ISP and govm ’t) on the ISOC roll in Internet developpement. There first and lone focus is the business aspect of internet.

– Socio-Politic situation of the country between 1996 and 1999.

• In April 1999: We decide to move forward and begun the chapter forming process. An e-mail send by Terry Wreigler asking all TOGO ISOC members to join the chapter forming effort was the trigger that make the thing realy move on.

ISOC ChapterISOC Chapter

• Since December 1999 on the « isoctg-discus@isoc.tg » mailling list, we are working (and discussing) on the chapter policy. Now evrything is ok to register the chapter apart of the 25 ISOC members we have to reach.

• Today we have only 10 members (6 to be renew) and over 20 other persons who are not member yet. Participents on the discussion are essentialy University of BENIN (TOGO), Togo Telecom, some indivual person working on Networking aerea, and two ISP.

ConclusionConclusion

• Togo is, in my vue a real exemple of Internet own revolution. In spite of the political, social, and economical situation, Internet In TOGO is moving on his way and growing. It linking people together and allowing information democratisation.

• With the creation of ISOC-TG, we are expecting more succes on the internet developpement, essentialy on the content production and more involving on global internet governance.