Connectivity and ICTs in developing countries are contextualised by the “digital divide”. More than ten years ago, at a G-7 conference on the information society in February 1995 in Brussels, then deputy president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, pointed out that there were more telephone lines in Manhattan than in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. "Half of humanity has never made a telephone call," he said.

Although mobile communication and other applications are changing the telecommunications environment in Africa, given the topic of this session, the “digital divide” can be summarised as follows: