Internet in Zimbabwe
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Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
has seen rapid expansion in recent years. The Internet
country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all t ...
is .zw. In 2009, the Mugabe-Tsvangirai Government of National Unity established a Ministry of Information and Communications Technology to focus on
ICT ICT may refer to: Sciences and technology * Information and communications technology * Image Constraint Token, in video processing * Immunochromatographic test, a rapid immunoassay used to detect diseases such as anthrax * In-circuit test, in ...
growth and development.


History of the Internet in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's first
internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
(ISP), Data Control & Systems, was established in 1994. In 1997, the national Posts and Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) built a national Internet backbone to sell bandwidth to private
ISPs An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
. The
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe Postal may refer to: Places * The Italian name for Burgstall, South Tyrol in northern Italy * Postal, Missouri * Postal Square * Postal Museum (Liechtenstein), a postal museum in Vaduz, Liechtenstein People * Fred Postal, former co-owner of ...
(POTRAZ) oversees ISP licensing. ''This article incorporates text from this source, which carries a
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
Attribution license.''
As of 2009, licenses cost US$2–4 million, depending on the level of service the ISP wished to provide, plus 3.5 percent of the ISP's annual gross income. The most recent membership list on the Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association (ZISPA) web site, last updated in 2007, comprises 28 ISPs.


Statistics

Approximately 40 percent (5.2 million) of Zimbabwe's population were internet users as of January 2014. This contrasts with 15.7 percent in 2011 and 0.4 percent in the year 2000. Most of the users (5.16 million) access internet via mobile devices.


Operators

Liquid Telcom, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless, is the leading internet player in Zimbabwe. Their local fibre network is the largest in the country and since early 2013 they also operate the largest fibre network in Africa. Liquid's pan-African fibre network stretches across nine countries (
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
,
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
,
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
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Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
,
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
,
Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
,
DRC The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
,
Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
, and
Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
). As of 2011, Zimbabwe's largest ISPs were YoAfrica and Zimbabwe Online (ZOL). Government-owned communications company TelOne is another major ISP; it provides bandwidth to most other ISPs in the country. TelOne has been plagued by financial and infrastructure problems. GISP, an ISP operating since 1998, provides internet services to the government and to parastatal organizations.


Legal and regulatory framework

The Post and Telecommunications Act of 2000 allows the government to monitor e-mail usage and requires ISPs to supply information to government officials when requested. The Supreme Court, however, ruled in 2004 that the sections of the law that permit monitoring violated the constitution. The government struck back with an initiative that requires ISPs to renew contracts with TelOne with the stipulation that they report any e-mail with “offensive or dangerous” content. In essence, this requires ISPs to do what the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional. The Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association has stated that none of its members will sign agreements with TelOne. The government strengthened its Internet surveillance policies with the Interception of Communications Bill of 2006. Under its provisions, the government will establish a telecommunications agency called the Monitoring and Interception of Communications Center to oversee, among other things, all telecommunications and postal services. Telecommunications and Internet service providers are required to ensure that their systems are technically capable of monitoring and to cover all associated costs. The government initially withdrew the bill in November 2006 over constitutionality objections from the Parliamentary Legal Committee, but the parliament approved it in June 2007. In June 2009, the government began discussing a new Information Communication and Technology Bill, which will take the place of the Broadcasting Services Act and the Posts and Telecommunications Act. It will also amend some sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which, among other things, governs the accreditation of journalists. If passed, the bill will consolidate ICT regulation under the proposed National Information and Communications Technology Authority of Zimbabwe, which will oversee ICT, broadcasting and postal services. The Authority will technically be an independent organization, though it will also be responsible for enacting government policies, a duty that may compromise its independence.


Surveillance and censorship

The Posts and Telecommunications Act introduced by Zimbabwe on 8 March 2000 empowers the government to intercept private e-mail traffic at its discretion. Sending or receiving disparaging comments about the country and its leadership rendered Zimbabwean nationals liable for a Z$200,000 fine. A spokesman for
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is a not for profit human rights organization whose core objective is to foster a culture of human rights in Zimbabwe as well as encourage the growth and strengthening of human rights at all levels of Zimbabw ...
claimed that the legislation was "designed to remind internet service providers and others that they operated only at the mercy of the president." According to Reporters Without Borders, during the 2008 presidential elections, government forces hacked into journalists’ e-mail accounts; eight journalists were fired for allegedly failing to support
Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Z ...
and the ZANU-PF. Employees of the Reserve Bank are not allowed to receive e-mails containing the words “ Morgan Tsvangirai” or “MDC”; the bank has had an e-mail content manager installed since 2006 that prevents e-mails with political content from reaching their intended recipients. In 2005, authorities arrested 40 people in a raid on a local Internet café because an e-mail insulting Mugabe was sent from the location. The OpenNet Initiative conducted testing on Zimbabwean ISP CABSAS in September 2008 and found no evidence of filtering. In 2017 it was announced that a new Board Of Censors headed by Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo will be commissioned to tackle the spread of information in the digital age.


See also

* .zw


References

{{Africa topic, Internet in Telecommunications in Zimbabwe