Africa-Press – Angola. The public and free internet access points in the nine municipalities of Moxico province, installed as part of the “Angola Online” project, have been without communications for over two years.
The city of Luena, for example, which has more than 468,000 inhabitants, mostly young people, had three internet access points, which made it easier for users to carry out searches and share information via social networks, free of charge.
These points operated in the Monumento à Paz Complex, Avenida 1o de Maio, as well as in the Garden in front of the Provincial Government, areas very frequented by the local population.
However, press found that these points became inoperative about two years ago, in the city of Luena, as well as in other regions of the province, making it difficult for the population, fundamentally the youngest, to enter the digital world.
Artur Santos, a psychology university student, said that he regularly went to the garden on Avenida 1o de Maio to carry out research on academic content and maintain communication with the world, a situation that he stopped doing because of the equipment’s inoperability.
In the same vein, Helena Paciência, a 12th grade student, said that she took advantage of the public internet network to keep in touch with family and friends, and that she currently frequents printing establishments to fulfill this need, calling for a resolution of the problem.
In statements, the director general of the National Institute for the Promotion of the Information Society – INFOSI, André Mpumba Pedro, justified the inoperability of the internet points with the vandalism of the materials that ensure their operation.
According to the person in charge, without indicating a date, he said that the implementation of a new internet distribution method is underway, using the services of ANGOSAT2, which will facilitate the assembly and maintenance of the equipment.
Angola Online is a non-profit social project, with the aim of creating free public access points to the Internet in various parts of the country, implemented by the National Institute for the Promotion of the Information Society – INFOSI, under the Ministry of Telecommunications, Technology of Information and Social Communication.
This Tuesday, the world celebrates Internet Day, a date established by the United Nations (UN), with a view to reflecting on the potential and challenges of new technologies.
According to data released by the Angolan Institute of Communications (INACOM), the country has more than nine million internet users, whose signal is distributed by the companies Angola Cable, Angola Telecom, Infrasat, Unitel, Movicel, NetOne, ITA, TS2, Quantis, Businesscom Network and Tikona Digital Networks, TVCabo and ZAP.
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