Google Brings High-Speed Internet to Uganda's Capital


    09 December, 2015

    Technology company Google has brought reliable Internet connections to Kampala, Uganda.

    Google is expanding high-speed Internet in the city, the company said. The project includes 120 locations in the Ugandan capital. It is part of an attempt to improve web infrastructure in Africa.

    Higher capacity means faster and cheaper access to customers. One day of unlimited data using the new network should cost 1,000 Ugandan shillings, the company said. That is equal to 30 American cents.

    Men work on their laptops at the Endiro Cade in Kampala on November 11, 2011. In 2010 the number of Internet users in Uganda rose to 4 million people: more than 1 in 10 of the population, according to statistics from the Uganda Communications.  In 2015, 8.5 million Ugandans use the Internet.
    Men work on their laptops at the Endiro Cade in Kampala on November 11, 2011. In 2010 the number of Internet users in Uganda rose to 4 million people: more than 1 in 10 of the population, according to statistics from the Uganda Communications. In 2015, 8.5 million Ugandans use the Internet.

    About 8.5 million people use the Internet in Uganda. That is about 23 percent of the country's population. Many in that country use cellular phone technology, but Internet service is not popular because it was expensive before Google's Project Link.

    Broadband access to the Internet is still hard to find in many places in Africa. Project Link moved into the Ghana cities of Accra and Kumasi this autumn.

    Other big players on the Internet also aided Africa. Social media's Facebook announced this fall better access to the Internet in Africa by using satellites.

    Jim Dresbach wrote this story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

    What piece of technology can you not do without? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section or visit our 51VOA.COM.

    ________________________________________________________________

    Words in This Story

    cellular – adj. relating to a system that uses radio waves instead of wires to send telephone signals

    broadband – n. a fast electronic network that carries more than one type of communication such as Internet and cable television signals

    satellite – n. a machine that is sent into space and that moves around the earth, moon, sun or a planet. Satellites are used for radio, television and other types of communication