From
the outside, the Telecentro Comuntario de Assomadadoes not look like an Internet café. It is a
nondescript ochre colored building that looks like it could be a storage
shed or somebody’s house. Paper posters advertising the telecentre keep on
getting blown away in the steady wind so the staff is thinking about a more
permanent neon sign. The telecentre is located in the town of Santa Catarina,
the second largest on the island of Sao Tiago, Cape Verde with a population of
42’000. A US$ 50’000 project of the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU, www.itu.int) and Cabo Verde Telecom (CVT,
www.nave.cv), the incumbent telephone company,
the telecentre opened in May 2001. CVT is providing 50 per cent discount on
telecommunication and Internet access during the first year. The telecentre has
a 64 kbps ISDN connection to the Internet.
Members
of the some 3’000 strong Women’s Association of Santa Catarina, operate the
telecentre. Two people staff it during working hours, 8 am – 10 pm daily
except Sundays. The only male involved in the operations is the guard. Services
available include recharge of mobile prepaid cards, purchase of telephone
calling cards, public phone calls, Internet access, PC applications,
photocopying, printing, and fax. Drinks and light snacks are also available. The
price of Internet access is 150 Cape Verde Escudos per hour (US$ 1.25), less
expensive than at the other two Internet cafes in town.
Clients of the five PC telecentre
include students and professors from a nearby school as well as residents of the
local community. There are around 60 users per day each using it on average of
half hour. There is an extra table for people to wait, as the telecentre tends
to get crowded during peak times.
PC and Internet access training for
women is in the pipeline. There is also a plan to introduce an e-commerce
component to sell handicrafts made by local women. This would include digitizing
the products and displaying them on a web site.
