[afnog] Hello - Zimbabwe Datacenter - School Connection Questions

[Nishal Goburdhan]

On 2 Nov 2018, at 15:08, bob evans wrote:

> Hello from California,
>
> My questions are about Zimbabwe. I realize Zimbabwe just began the the
> process in 2017 of connecting schools. I understand the hot-seat 
> program
> at schools.
>
> I am assisting a tech lab at Stanford University that is planning to 
> help
> African countries improve and expand educational opportunities. They 
> will
> do this by establish a platform that allows for distant learning, 
> provide
> collaboration among students and teachers in a new way, make lessons 
> more
> productive and available, most importantly it will expand learning
> opportunity beyond hot-seating times, etc.
>
> I would appreciate any knowledgable information on the following:
>
> 1. There appears to be a many connected cities on the Liquid maps. How
> many data centers exist?

most of the ISPs have their own data-centres, and have been operating 
these for a long time.  if you’re asking if there’s a large PCI-DSS 
carrier-neutral facility, the answer is no.  in general though, that’s 
not a blocker to get things done.


> 2. Is there a school network hub or peering point - one datacenter 
> better
> for this than another?

there are two IXPs in zimbabwe;  both located in harare.   (see:  
https://www.pch.net/ixpdir)
one has some info and stats online;  the other doesn’t (although 
rumour has it, that this has more peers).

i can’t make a judgement call for you on the data-centres;  but they 
do exist.  you can try reaching out to the ISP association to get more 
details for the datacentres (they are ISP owned).  see:  
http://www.zispa.org.zw


> 3. Percentage of schools that have Internet Access ?

you can likely get that from the regulator, potraz - 
http://www.potraz.gov.zw.


> 4. What is the average size of bandwidth to each school that has 
> internet
> access.  (Circuit size to a datacenter from the school).
>
> 5 a. Is it more common for a student (or their family) to have a wifi
> enabled smart phone, computer, tablet or chromebook?
> 5 b. What percentage have such a device?
>
> So, that we do not pollute the AFNOG list with this thread, please 
> reply
> to my email, bob at FiberInternetCenter.com


i’m guessing you’ve been given the #1 mistake that most of these 
programmes make;  they host them on the US west coast, then complain 
that no-one uses them, when the on-the-ground experience is so slow, 
that’s it’s practically unusable.  hopefully, you’ll fix that in 
your design  :-)

—n.