The curious case of costly internet in Zim

By Freeman Chari

One day I was watching a friend go through her Cisco simulations when something struck my head. She was drawing computers and routers trying to come up with something she called a network topology (whatever that is). When I asked what she was trying to do we ended up concluding that until there is a strategy to harness our brilliant ideas and transform them into action the poor will always be poor.

In an attempt to explain the concept of networking to me, she picked our internet connection. We pay our Internet Service Provider (ISP) and we also pay our telecoms provider for the line rental. Our ISP has a small network which we are also part of blah blah blah and here ended our original discussion but started another one which eventually inspired our realisation.

To access internet we pay an ISP, which in turn pays an upstream ISP for Internet access, this upstream ISP also pays another ISP which has a bigger network, which in turn pays another one and so continues the sequence until we reach a network that is called a Tier 1 carrier. A Tier 1 carrier is one that connects through the entire internet without paying for that access. There are about ten of these truly Tier 1 networks in the whole world. They include Sprint , AT&T, Verizon, Level 3 Communications (L3), TeliaSonera, Quest and Global Crossing. All the Tier 1 carriers are headquartered in USA except Global Crossing (Bermuda), NTT (Japan) and TeliaSonera (Sweden).

This brings me to the core of our observation. When I visit Quick n Easy Internet Cafe in Harare I will pay $1 to access the internet. Quick n Easy would take a chunk and pass another to its ISP which will get a chunk and pass the other chunk to somebody who will pass to somebody. There is 70% chance that a chunk of my $1 will end up shoring the USA balance of payments.

To those who have tried to own a website they may know that for you to have one you need to have an internet domain name. Unless you want to use a country code top-level domain like .co.zw then one needs to pay domain registrar to register that domain. There are five notable registrars in the whole world, the biggest being GoDaddy in USA.

The point I am trying to drive here is that, the advances in sciences that we embrace entrench certain levels of monopoly of the economic space by the rich over the poor. The technological advances demand that there be a computer. One cannot use a computer unless he purchases an operating system like Windows which was developed by Microsoft- a USA company.

This scenario does not embrace innovation from the lower end of the consumer ladder. This is present in most business atmospheres where regulatory agencies are created to put stringent measures which do not only curtail innovation but serve to entrench the dominance of certain powerful entities in such markets.

I will give an example. There is a man in Zimbabwe who has struggled for the past ten years to have his helicopter- which he built from scratch- fly in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean authority CAAZ has denied him permission to test his invention calling the chopper unworthy to fly. Instead of CAAZ rewarding such determination and innovation, they choose to let him be an object of ridicule. I am of the opinion that, had he been given necessary support by now Zimbabwe would have been able to build its own helicopter, or maybe a tractor.

I am sure if Daniel had been a Professor of Robotics from overseas he would have been allowed to try his chopper yet Bill Gates revolutionised the world despite being a school dropout! Daniel Chingoma, has got a brilliant idea but does not have the financial capacity sustain his idea. Unless there is somebody who has the finances and is willing to support him, it is possibility that his chopper will never see the skies. How many of us have got clear ideas but do not have the financial capacity to bring them into action?

I have always wanted to operate a Medical Laboratory that would have the capacity to diagnose such diseases like leukaemia and cancer in Zimbabwe. For the past four years I have been visiting banks and financial institutions within and without Zimbabwe. They all tell me that Brilliant proposal now what collateral do you have? I am just a 28 year old who does not even have a stand to build. So until I am able to amass wealth in immovable assets or am able to convince somebody with his houses to act as surety then this dream will die a stillbirth.

I work in a hospital, my salary even if I save it for ten years without eating anything it would never come near the amount needed to buy a BD FacsCalibur machine for such a laboratory. Faced with these challenges one begins to think of how he can surmount them, and many ideas and scenarios fly across. As a Zimbabwean who has been denied access to loans because I do not have title deeds one option is to also go and grab land like what ZANU PF bigwigs are doing.

This is a rational idea given that if I stand in a queue with Munangagwa and Mr Hirtchkens (a white farmer with 200 hectares of land) both of them stand a better chance of accessing the loan despite the fact that they both would not have a legitimate claim to the land they would be using as collateral. So why not grab too?

Like in the well knit system of internet business, the sugar business has an upstream cascade that makes it difficult for me as a common man to be part of. Triangle Ltd owns the canals that carry water from Tokwane-Ngundu dam to its fields, it owns the sugar milling company and has big claims in the sugar refineries. Even if I get land in Nuanetsi Ranch, I would not be able to farm sugarcane unless if Triangle allows me to use its water. In the event that it allows me, I may not be able to sell the sugarcane to its milling company unless it allows me to. Otherwise I have to sell the canes to people at Ngundu Bus Terminus.

Under these circumstances why not violently seize a part of this chain and start playing a part? After all it is situations like these which necessitated revolutions in Russia and China. Another option is to use our cumulative economic power to create a pool of resources which we can tap into if one of us has an idea that is worthy supporting. This is a concept that has been used by Indians much to their benefit. If I can save $5 and 1000 other people can do it every month. Each month we would be having $ 5 000 which can be invested.

In a year we would be having a relatively large pool of capital. Unfortunately the circumstances that we find ourselves in make this even harder. My salary is break even. My employer gives me enough to feed my family, pay rent and school fees. Where will I get the extra cash without straining myself?

I can go on and on but the situation that we the poor find ourselves in demands that we radically shift our gaze from what we are made to believe is happening and takes a deep stare at the machinations below. Otherwise we are going to get poorer and poorer whilst the world seems to be developing.

As I retire to bed, I cannot help listening to Thomas Mapfumos munhu mutema. Hona tingabhenga sei vamwe vakabhenga kare zvinotigumbura isu (How can we bank when others banked a long time ago, it frustrates!)