internet access in Africa

It is always amazing how this happens. As soon as you start thinking
about something - access to web resources in Africa, for example, more information comes pouring in!

This from one of the students in my class in response to an assignment
to find a web article that addressed some issue of computers and the
internet in society, and pose a question about it...

Less than 5% of Africans currently have access to the internet. O3b Networks plans to offer cheap high speed internet to Africa by 2010 by launching a satellite which will offer rural areas internet access. In addition, initiatives are in process to run fiber-optic cable to give more populated areas high speed internet access.

What type of improvements or problems might this cause the African nation?

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1841175,00.html

http://www.o3bnetworks.com/

O3b — short for the "other 3 billion" around the world who are unable to tap into the Web — plans to deploy spacecraft more cheaply by orbiting them at lower altitudes than traditional satellites.