GPRS in rural Sierra Leone
Thursday, March 6th, 2008A few years ago, the World Bank ICT Department estimated that nearly 80% of the world’s population lived under a mobile phone signal. I’m sure it is higher by now. I also have often wondered what proportion of these people have access to mobile data (GPRS), since sometimes GPRS has been limited to cities and more prosperous areas.
I saw this on the DigAfrica listserv today — Celtel has announced that GPRS will be available nationwide on its network in Sierra Leone. This does not mean that there is 100% coverage (by population or area) in Sierra Leone yet (see map), but it does help blur the rural/urban split, and provides a way to connect a laptop or community PC to the internet in some places where landline/dialup will not reach.
