FEATURE-Mobile phones ring in south Sudan’s new era

By Katie Nguyen

RUMBEK, Sudan, Jan 17 (Reuters) – The town of Rumbek in southern Sudan is getting used to a sound never heard before — the ringing of a mobile phone.

Until recently, the idea of connecting the war-shattered south to the rest of the world was unthinkable.

But an end to 21 years of civil war, formalised by an agreement signed on January 9, has changed everything. Peace promises untold opportunities to catapult southern Sudan into the 21st century through development and modern technology.

“This only happens once in a lifetime — the chance to build something from scratch,” said a foreign entrepreneur in Rumbek.

Fighting had left southern Sudan a black spot for telecommunications until last August when the region’s first mobile phone operator — Network of the World (NOW) — was set up with a multimillion dollar investment.

Satellite dishes, generators, computers, a telecoms mast and a wooden shed for an Internet cafe were transported piecemeal to the bush, by convoy and chartered plane.

Despite a chronic lack of trained technicians and engineers in southern Sudan, a network was up and running within four months.

The new mast stands at a site dominated by an enormous dilapidated satellite dish, intended for a fixed line phone system. Government troops bombed the dish in the 1980s before it had a chance to get started.

There are now about 1,000 subscribers to NOW in two towns — Rumbek and Yei, and Richard Herbert, NOW’s operations director, is confident that number will increase five-fold by the end of the year.

“Our long-term goal is to get as many mobile phones into people’s hands as possible so that relatives abroad can get in touch,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“For most people, receiving phone calls is more important than making them because they don’t have the buying power yet.”

GOOD TO TALK

The United Nations estimates that up to three million people fled the war against Khartoum’s government in the last two decades — many to neighbouring countries like Kenya and Uganda. Others escaped to Britain and North America.

Tarifs for calls to lost friends and family are relatively cheap compared to other African mobile phone operators.

However, for the average southerner who must survive on less than a dollar a day, the handsets remain a luxury only aid workers, rebel commanders and local government leaders can currently afford.

With revenues flowing from the south’s oilfields, under the wealth-sharing chapter of the north-south peace pact, that may quickly change.

“Over a five-year period you will see Internet and phone systems in every major centre,” Herbert said. “With the advent of Thuraya phone and mobile phones it’s become real-time.”

His Internet cafe offers free service and attracts 30-40 customers a day who want to check e-mail on its four terminals.

Akur Costa is enjoying being online. Carefully typing in her password, the schoolgirl’s face brightens when she sees a new message received.

She giggles shyly — the e-mail is from her boyfriend.

“We communicate once a week. He is in Australia but the Internet is such that he feels close,” the 21 year-old said.

Her friends talk of marriage with young men and women from the diaspora being arranged through the Internet.

One story tells of a man who wanted to scan a photo of his cow to send to his son’s future in-laws as proof of dowry.

HARD SLOG

In addition to the existing Internet cafe, Herbert has mapped out a new business centre, complete with offices, a conference room and shop spaces, which he is building brick by brick — literally.

Under the searing sun, two of his workers dig sand which they mix with cement and water before putting it through a brick making machine.

Southern Sudan is far too remote to make exporting materials a viable option. It is a hard slog, but the work creates jobs in this town of about 100,000 people.

“The challenge has been getting the skills in local people’s hands, getting them to understand they have a nation to build,” Herbert said.

War has created a generation of soldiers, many of them lacking a trade and basic education. Peacetime requires carpenters, mechanics, welders, plumbers, teachers and doctors.

The problem is acute in the pastoral community of Rumbek, where many are more at ease herding cattle than holding a shovel. But, progress can be rapid.

Initially, Herbert’s men produced only 50 bricks a day. A week later they were making 900 and working towards a target of 2-3,000 daily.