Information Technology (IT ) Matters (Part 1)
This new column about Information Technology begins with an examination of IP – Internet Protocol. We’ll explain some of the jargon about bits and bytes, demystify a little of the hype, and describe what you should reasonably expect from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The Internet is a relatively new way of delivering information and communication, but it is unquestionably the way of the future.
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First, why is it so expensive to have a decent Internet connection? The answer lies in how we access the Internet – basically a collection of computers where information is stored. In the more developed world, the Internet is usually delivered via fibre optic cable, so that huge amounts of data can be transmitted almost literally at the speed of light – the volume makes it cheap, and the optics make it fast. However in most parts of Africa the connection has to be made over satellite, meaning that the stream of data – bandwidth – takes up actual space on a satellite transponder. This is expensive and, while some ISPs in Rwanda have managed to reduce these costs, the satellite space is still a fixed part of your total bill for connecting to the Internet. |
There is talk that a fibre optic cable will soon connect East Africa to the rest of the world. (Some say that more money has been spent on meetings to talk about it, than has actually been spent on connecting it.) While there is no doubt that the connection will be great, when it happens, it will cost an awful lot of money to implement, and there is little guarantee that prices will be significantly reduced – at least in the short-term, and almost certainly not without some form of donor funding.
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So in Africa, the Internet is expensive, simple as that. Now let’s look at whether you are extracting the most value from the money that you pay. You should understand how the speed of your connection is measured. There are eight ‘bits’ (1s and 0s) in one ‘byte’ of data. That’s easy. But confusingly, while bandwidth is measured in ‘bits’– as in 64kbps: kilo (thousand) bits (of data) per second – your computer records a data transfer rate measured in ‘bytes’. It’s the same thing, really, except that it’s maddening to subscribe to, say, a 64kbps service, and have your computer apparently download web-pages and e-mail attachments at only 8kB. As a rule, if the letter B is in capitals, then multiply the preceding number by 8 to get the real bits-per-second connection speed. Generally, your connection will feel slow when you receive data below a transmission rate of about 4kB. Try http://performance.toast.net/ to see what you’re getting from your ISP. |
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Then, ask your ISP if you are getting a ‘shared’ service (not so good). Check whether your connection speed has a ‘committed information rate’ (good), and find out if there is any ‘burst’ available (very good). Is your bandwidth mixed in with a telephone offering, or does your provider ‘manage’ bandwidth to provide ‘QOS’ (go on, ask) to enable a high quality of voice calls over the same connection? In the next issue we’ll look at how much you should really be paying for your home and office connections, and we’ll examine the extra services that you should be demanding from your service provider. |
