{"id":13580,"date":"2019-08-28T07:18:10","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T07:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/?p=13580"},"modified":"2019-08-29T13:08:41","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T13:08:41","slug":"number-of-internet-users-in-burundi-is-low-says-arct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/number-of-internet-users-in-burundi-is-low-says-arct\/","title":{"rendered":"Number of internet users in Burundi is low, says ARCT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In a workshop held on August 27th, The Burundi Agency of Telecommunication Regulation-ARCT has said very few Burundians use internet.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13577\" style=\"width: 457px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13577\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-13577\" src=\"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Hermalas-Nahimana.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"447\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Hermalas-Nahimana.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Hermalas-Nahimana-300x173.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Hermalas-Nahimana-768x442.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Hermalas-Nahimana-600x345.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hermalas Nahimana: \u201cThe penetration rate of internet usage in Burundi is currently inferior to 10%\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe penetration rate of internet usage in Burundi is currently inferior to 10%,\u201d says Hermalas Nahimana, ARCT Acting Director.<br \/>\nFor him, there are several challenges regarding the evolution of internet usage in Burundi.<br \/>\nThere are challenges over regulatory texts regarding the evolution of information and communication technology, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe digital financial service has not yet improved in Burundi,\u201d he says adding that telecommunication companies benefit from digital services more than the government.<br \/>\nMr. Nahimana says the government has created a universal service fund that will help the rural population to have access to the internet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cARCT plans to organize sensitization sessions on the usage of internet all over the country in collaboration with telecommunication companies,\u201d he says.<br \/>\n\u201cInternet is expensive in Burundi,\u201d says Christian Ntahondi, a participant in the workshop.<br \/>\nHe adds that smartphones and computers are too expensive. \u201cMany Burundians cannot afford them the reason why they hardly use internet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>For him, internet prices should be reduced to increase the number of internet users in Burundi.<br \/>\n\u201cThe government should also reduce taxes imposed on smartphones, computers, etc. what can facilitate people to buy them at lower prices,\u201d he also says.<br \/>\n\u201cTelecommunication is part of human rights,\u201d says Pierre Nduwayo, Chairman of the Burundian Association of Consumers-ABUCO.<\/p>\n<p>For him, Telecommunication rights are not guaranteed to 90% of Burundians since around 10% use internet.<\/p>\n<p>He calls on the government of Burundi to intervene in the telecommunication sector.<br \/>\n\u201cThe universal service fund should help rural people to buy smartphones or computers so they can have access to internet,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>The workshop was organized to exchange ideas on the transformation of digital regulation in Burundi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a workshop held on August 27th, The Burundi Agency of Telecommunication Regulation-ARCT has said very few Burundians use internet. \u201cThe penetration rate of internet usage in Burundi is currently inferior to 10%,\u201d says Hermalas Nahimana, ARCT Acting Director. For him, there are several challenges regarding the evolution of internet usage in Burundi. There are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":13577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,670],"tags":[899,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13581,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13580\/revisions\/13581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}