One of the most intriguing things to watch in coming years is how the Net will be adapted in African cultures - and how the Net itself will be changed by the participation of people in and from the continent. But there is a very long way to go. Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President of South Africa, recently pointed out that there are more telephone lines in Manhattan than the whole of Africa south of the Sahara. Despite some radio links, essentially the Net of today can only go as far as the existing telephone network. And even then it needs electricity and a computer and a modem.
Local messages are generally free apart from the cost of a brief local phone call.
But the equipment costs should not be a permanent hurdle. Most of Africa's urban population can't afford a car, but they can rent space enough to sit or stand in a bus or taxi for a particular trip. The features of a Net in Africa that would serve Africa well would, I believe, include kiosk-style services which would allow you to send or receive messages from a shared computer, paying per minute of use like a phone box. Privacy, unlike at the phone box, can be guaranteed by scrambling software. So let me continue on the assumption that at e-mail and other electronic services will grow, and hopefully public services will require little more than two finger typing ability to join in.