A letter sent from Morocco takes weeks to reach Ethiopia. An e-mail message takes less than a day to arrive. The same report can be transmitted via electronic mail for a fraction of a dollar. The ability to broadcast one message to multiple users facilitates more cost savings and on-line discussions. Improvement in the quality of research and education in agriculture can be achieved by linking agricultural colleges to the Internet.
African researchers can participate both in use and in the generation of knowledge on the network.
The gap will increase the likelihood of cultural, religious and tribal ghettos leading to regional and inter-regional conflicts. Most of the technical challenges in building links to Africa stem from the region's poor telecommunications infrastructure and unwieldy bureaucracy. Several experts on telecommunications development suggest that liberalization and privatization of telephone networks are the cures for these problems. But African governments fear their national telephone companies will lose revenue if telephone tariffs are reduced. Although the situation is changing, explicit permission is usually required from national telecom operators before one can install any kind of telephone device.