The trio of Afrique Telecom is partnering with
Eutelsat and Wikimedia France to offer free access to French language Wikipedia
in Sub-Saharan Africa via Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), reports ITRealms.
This ITRealms also gathered the trio
would progressively deploy Internet solutions over Sub-Saharan Africa in
combination with Eutelsat’s satellite capacity.
“Its “TamTam” service extends access
to the Internet in rural areas using Wi-Fi hotspots for collective access,” a
press statement made available to ITRealms revealed, stressing that it would be
used to offer free access to French-language Wikipedia content for many
thousands of users.
This initiative, starting in French-speaking Africa,
supports Wikimédia France’s strategy to promote free access to educational
content, in particular through Wikipedia.
In order to offer free, unlimited access, Afrique Telecom has developed a server located at “TamTam” hotspots that would locally host French-language Wikipedia content. The content would be updated regularly via a satellite link provided by Eutelsat.
Equally, ITRealms reports that Afrique Telecom’s ambition is to roll-out “TamTam” between 4000 and 8000 hotspots in the next two years, while Eutelsat has agreed to finance servers hosted by the first 1,000 hotspots as a springboard that will further measure the impact of the service.
The Wikimedia movement has made a priority of improving accessibility and content creation on Wikipedia for so-called “Southern” countries. There is still a large gap between Northern and Southern countries in terms of the number of readers and contributors to Wikimedia platforms as well as content on Southern countries. French-speaking Africa is a priority action area for the Wikimédia France Foundation, as a complement to its Afripédia project.
In order to offer free, unlimited access, Afrique Telecom has developed a server located at “TamTam” hotspots that would locally host French-language Wikipedia content. The content would be updated regularly via a satellite link provided by Eutelsat.
Equally, ITRealms reports that Afrique Telecom’s ambition is to roll-out “TamTam” between 4000 and 8000 hotspots in the next two years, while Eutelsat has agreed to finance servers hosted by the first 1,000 hotspots as a springboard that will further measure the impact of the service.
The Wikimedia movement has made a priority of improving accessibility and content creation on Wikipedia for so-called “Southern” countries. There is still a large gap between Northern and Southern countries in terms of the number of readers and contributors to Wikimedia platforms as well as content on Southern countries. French-speaking Africa is a priority action area for the Wikimédia France Foundation, as a complement to its Afripédia project.
Uj Dominic/GEE with additional report from APO
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