Back In The Land of Connectivity

I recently returned from a three-week trip to Africa, and I must say it is great to be back to a world where connecting is easy. I suppose it is natural to grow complacent about how simple it is in the USA to connect with family, friends, colleagues and others. I was in Tanzania and Zanzibar, and while they are both beautiful locations and have wonderful people, I gained a new appreciation of just how frictionless communication and business is in our country due to the broadband Internet, wireless connections, mobile service, and the low cost of voice and data exchange.

Some observations that may prove helpful to you if you are ever heading that way:

1) Leave your laptop at home if a big reason for bringing it is to access the Internet. Individual wireless (or wired) connections are almost non-existent even in some of the best hotels and safari lodges. A few places have an onsite computer you can use to log into your email or other websites, but these are in high demand by other guests, and you will have a limited window of time to communicate.

2) Connecting via a mobile phone – either for voice or data – will probably be a crapshoot. I signed up for AT&T’s International Plan before I left and downloaded every bit of information I could find about using my iPhone overseas. However, Tanzania has a lot of different mobile telecom companies, and my service depended on which company’s signal I could get in a specific region of that country. In addition, even with AT&T’s International Plan, mobile voice service in Tanzania cost $5 per minute and data access via mobile phone cost about $1 per megabyte! Needless to say, your communication habits tend to change drastically even when it is possible to connect.

Most travelers I talked to in Tanzania, had similar problems with their mobile service, and I could figure out no rhyme or reason why some people’s mobile phones worked part of the time, and why others had no service whatsoever. When I was able to use my mobile phone over there, it was simple. There were no international codes I had to use. I just dialed someone on my phone as if I was back home and the connection was almost instant.

After being in that part of the world, you realize the importance of relatively cheap and ubiquitous connectivity to help power the U.S. economy. Here, many markets are virtual and these markets are made possible by a huge flow of data and information that has an almost negligible cost. In Tanzania, where connectivity is limited and expensive, markets were often actual, physical gatherings where people would come together to buy or exchange goods. I can’t imagine the challenges of starting a business in a country like Tanzania – or any country – where the cost of communication is so high and the penetration of broadband is so low. In such an environment, it is difficult to imagine how these countries can ever hope to rise out of third world economic status and compete in a competitive – and connected – global marketplace.