1. Internet in TOGO By Adiel AKPLOGAN C@Fenet CAFE Informatique & Telecommunications AFNOG Meeting Mai 2001

2. Introduction Togo at glance West Africa country Population: 4.5 Million area: 56.000 sq. Km Rural Population: 71% Urban Population: 21% Growth rate of urban population: 6.1% Capital: LOME Principal cities :Lome (700.000 inhabitants), Sokode (51.000 inhabitants), Kara (30.000 inhabitants), Kpalime (30.000 inhabitants)

3. History 1992: first usage of Internet in Togo through ORSTOM and RIO (only used by French scientifics). End 1995: First usage by general public. Powered by CAFÉ Informatique (a private company) through a BBS connected to Internet (NCS Ghana) via uucp (6 users). Earlier 1996 : First academic Internet access on the Campus by Syfed (AUPELF/UREF project - this was an uucp connection over an X25 link) September 1996: first local web server and smtp mail server under Linux (35 users). The ccTLD «.TG » was delegate to CAFE Informatique.

4. History (continue) 1997: Full IP connection via a VSAT link (64/128) to the Internet by CAFÉ Informatique & Telecommunications. It offer all internet services and was the only one public ISP of the country. Earlier 1998: The local telecommunications company (Togo Telecom) lunch his own internet node project and put it online in Mars 1998. They position themselves as access only provider (with 128/128 Kbps link to Internet via MCI). They enroll most of the computer services company to be ISP and give them a 64Kps LS free for 6 months

5. Today Today, 4 year after the full connectivity, the growth of the internet is become very impressive. A recent study by the America Cultural Center, show that there are over 40.000 regular internet users in the country, and over 5.000 local access created by the 13 ISPs! Two links 1 Mbps (CAFEnet) and 1Mbps (TogoTelecom). A regulatory Authority for telecommunications was installed by the government.

6. One year ago

7. Today (Cafenet) CAFÉ Informatique PAS3 INTERPACKET POP II LOME Centre ECOWAS FOUND BTCI BOAD ESIBA AGN CEB 1 Mbps/512kbpsE1 (2Mbps) 1.2 Mbps shared Wireless EducationCyberCafeISPPrivate Co.NGO MULTIMEDIA Elite SAD EXPLOR@ HERCUL GMF ECOBANK USEMBASY 64 Kbps 32 lines 92 lines Togotelecom Cybercafe TELECEL

8. Today (Togotelecom) IMET Sprint Link Togo Telecom Cybercafe 160 lines NetCom CAFEnet EducationCyberCafeISPPrivate Co.NGO64 Kbps British Shcool 1 Mbps/512kbps SYFED UB BIB DEFI IDS Techno LORDAF GTI CR CIC SOFTNET UNDP CCT Vo Kaya MULTIMEDIA FA2F CYBERCOM BTD

9. Costs Dial up acces: –$8 to $50 /month for unlimited acces Leased Line: Togo Telecom : $1000 - $1300 /month C@Fenet : $800 /month - Wireless connection 25% to 50% dicount for Education usage

10. Some Statistics Growth of users

11. Statistics (continue)

12. Internet Society Late 1997: Idea of Internet Society chapter creation (first meeting: April 1998 with 6 persons) by Adiel AKPLOGAN and Alain AINA. –First problem come from other ISP thinking that, it will be an association formed by a Company (as the initiative come from CAFÉ workers) to enrol all the internet user to use there node. –No comprehension by other Actor (essentialy ISP and govm t) on the ISOC roll in Internet developpement. There first and lone focus is the business aspect of internet. –Socio-Politic situation of the country between 1996 and 1999. In April 1999: We decide to move forward and begun the chapter forming process. An e-mail send by Terry Wreigler asking all TOGO ISOC members to join the chapter forming effort was the trigger that make the thing realy move on.

13. ISOC Chapter Since December 1999 on the « isoctg- discus@isoc.tg » mailling list, we are working (and discussing) on the chapter policy. Now evrything is ok to register the chapter apart of the 25 ISOC members we have to reach. Today we have only 10 members (6 to be renew) and over 20 other persons who are not member yet. Participents on the discussion are essentialy University of BENIN (TOGO), Togo Telecom, some indivual person working on Networking aerea, and two ISP.

14. Conclusion Togo is, in my vue a real exemple of Internet own revolution. In spite of the political, social, and economical situation, Internet In TOGO is moving on his way and growing. It linking people together and allowing information democratisation. With the creation of ISOC-TG, we are expecting more succes on the internet developpement, essentialy on the content production and more involving on global internet governance.