The continuing story of the internet in Africa and the myth of deregulation of global markets

Last week at Cape Coast, Ghana, I could once again experience the troubles of Internet in Africa. Internet in Ghana can simply be expressed in one statement too slow and too expensive. It is an illustration for the digital divide.
How will researchers in Ghana ever be able to catch up with their peers in the industrialized countries if they cannot easily access the digital information available in this world?
For an institute of the University of Cape Coast I ordered a satellite connection to the internet. At first sight this is not the most advantageous type of connection because of bandwidth limitations. Besides, the satellite connects you directly to Europe, so you will consume international bandwidth for local data exchange. This is like you’re taking an airplane from e.g. Accra to Kumasi (two cities in Ghana), making a stopover in London.
On the short term we really don’t have much choice. The universities in Ghana need better internet, so we just went for the “quick and dirty” solution of buying a satellite dish and connecting it. The promised internet download speed (of 128 kbps), which we bought from a Dutch provider, (without Service Level Agreement, because no telecom company dares to commit itself to deliver a proper service of internet in Africa) appeared to be unreliable. Despite all well known tricks that internet providing companies use to excuse themselves for poor service (blaming it on the position of the sun and other technical details which we can’t verify), the bottom line is, the market in Ghana is producer dominated, and the telecom companies, with their short term targets make a great profit out of this.
During my stay in Ghana, I followed the internet news sites, (on my guesthouse’s computer with a very slow internet connection) revealing the most severe financial crises of our lifetime. The tumbling banks and collapsing businesses showed clearly what happens in free markets, when no proper regulation mechanisms exist.

Will the greediness of a free and deregulated world market ever bring sustainable global economic development?