Written by Mina Yirga - Horizon Ethiopia Staff Writer
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
I sat down one morning to the always tedious task of using the slow ETC broadband connection to check my email. As usual I opened many tabs in my browser and then went to get my coffee knowing the pages still wouldn‘t be loaded when I returned. Reading the ‘error in page’ message on each of the opened tabs and finding my laptop gone to sleep from inactivity is part of my daily practice apart from patiently to refreshing pages countless times. Switching browsers and checking numerous Internet cafés with little traffic has led me to believe reliable Internet is just a fleeting dream here.
But then, desperately searching for an alternative one day, a friend who had been annoyed with my lack of replies to her emails invited me to her office and I found the solution.
My jaw dropped when I saw pages loading as soon as I hit Enter. When I asked my friend how this was possible, she simply said, “you are outside Ethiopia; this is the UNECA.”
In Addis there are three international organizations that have a special license from the government to use Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite broadband technology internet connectivity from Europe. Given relief from being at the state telecom monopolies whim, the AU, EU and UN effectively are modern telecom havens in a country stuck in the past.
The willingness of these organizations to foot the huge bill required for their own link shows just how crucial effective communications is and to what extent organizations lucky to get a 128Kbps are suffering.
But if you aren’t lucky enough to have an in at one of these places, ACX has scoured the city for the best Internet cafés and public connection points. While it is not always possible to get the same speed as within the AU compound, some of our picks at least have amenities to offer as you wait for pages to load.
SURVIVAL GUIDE TO INTERNET USAGE IN ADDIS
WiFi: There are a few buildings in Addis which have invested in wireless public Internet, some with great success in creating a devoted following. Getu Commercial Center on Bole Road offers building-wide coverage with the most attractive location being its fifth floor Cloud 9 café. It is usualy overshadowed by city favorites Swiss Café (by Bole Medanealem Church), Kaldi’s and Lime Tree (in the Boston Building on Bole Road) who usually have an army of laptops on the tables next to some pretty tasty food.
Internet Cafés: Though the city now seems to be teeming with Internet cafés despite the obnoxiously high prices charged by ETC, there are a few that stand out for amenities and comfort. Most are clustered on Bole Road such as the cafés on ground floors of Dabi, DH Geda, BeDesta and Kake. Also of note are the Internet cafés around London and Saay cafés.
Use an email client: The vast majority of Internet usage here is centered around email. If you have to be connected to read, compose or respond to an email then you’re wasting both your precious time and money. Email clients only require a connection to retrieve or send actual messages which they can do automatically. Microsoft Outlook is the most popular email client. If you like to access your mail from different computers (i.e. cafes), then get a U3 enabled Flash drive and load Mozilla’s free Thunderbird client which will pretty much do what Outlook does and run right off the flash drive.
Protect yourself from viruses: Addis’ Internet cafes are generally pretty much riddled with viruses, malware and so forth. Once again, a U3 enabled flash drive is your best defense since it can automatically load a virus protection program to keep you safe even as you continue working at the café.
Comments
(3)
fast internet access written by barry gardner , July 20, 2009
Greetings and thank you for your article for fast internet access by Mina Yarga. I would like to know if there is any help for the people in Bahir Dar visiting the internet caf!e. I was a visitor in Bahir Dar in May and June and gave-up trying to use the internet caf!e. Is there any help that you can offer for fast internet in Bahir Dar?, thank you for your enlightened article, One Love, Barry.
talk about just in time information!! written by Nahom , July 22, 2009
I just purchased a 4GB usb flash drive with U3 features...and accessing e-mail along with avoiding viruses were my two main concerns....this article is a winner!!
I was in New Delhi, India last year for 4 mos and I had to do a full out virus scan and repair once or twice a month.
Glad you found it useful. Another recommendation that might trump all of the above (with the exception of running an email client like Outlook or Thunderbird) is to purchase (or rent) a 3G modem from Tele. They're faster than dialup (even though they don't deliver on the advertised 230 kbps speed) and are of course completely portable. You refill your balance just as you would your phone SIM card balance and are quite cost effective (probably cheaper than most Internet cafes and not far away from dialup rates).
Sorry, we don't have much info on connecting in Bahir Dar but we'll keep an eye out for that info.
I sat down one morning to the always tedious task of using the slow ETC broadband connection to check my email. As usual I opened many tabs in my browser and then went to get my coffee knowing the pages still wouldn‘t be loaded when I returned. Reading the ‘error in page’ message on each of the opened tabs and finding my laptop gone to sleep from inactivity is part of my daily practice apart from patiently to refreshing pages countless times. Switching browsers and checking numerous Internet cafés with little traffic has led me to believe reliable Internet is just a fleeting dream here.
