Is Mauritius really a Cyber Island?
For years now, Mauritius is being labelled a cyber island and those fancy terms have been used countless number of times in the press to make our country more appealing.
What are your views regarding this statement?
8 Replies
We are almost 2020. My Youtube is still blury by default. I bought a video package but I can't watch it. It's in 4K. I can't work. Sns takes ages to load. Government services are hard to access on their website if it's even possible. I go to other places, conferences had to stop because the speaker couldn't use the internet. You can't expect people to have ecommerce websites, apps, sell movies. watch movies by streaming ect when the most basic of things is too slow. We're not a cyper island. We're an ideal which claims to be modern but for the middle ages
Mauritius cannot be called a cyber island because the internet connection is not reliable and people still have to pay for it. Also when some people apply for internet connection they are not given the internet according to the time they say it would be available and this is the case in Mauritius in some regions.
Has the potential to become one; but we need time for the developments to be materialized.
Any country with the right guidance and investment has the potential to become a cyber island. We seemed to have made a mockery out of that term though.
The advancement in technology have been really beneficial in other countries. For example, working from home has been made a possibility to many individuals either working for an employer or for themselves. There are many institutions in Mauritius who offer distance learning. The internet is undoubtedly the most important thing to carry these business activities but how many times has it been down for several hours?
Back in 2002, work was under way to lead us into being a cyber island. It's been 10 years now, how much more time do they need?
In short, NO! In my article I discussed this.
How can Mauritius be termed Cyber Island if Mauritians haven't got accustomed to computers for generations? Besides the poor connection, the phone lines are a total waste. Check this video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_48W9yTQks
UTM cannot even supply for modules such as Artificial Intelligence, robotics. Instead it focuses on Business Intelligence.
Mauritius lacks many e-services. It is only beginning to rise.
The price of hardware? Phew!
Mauritius does not even have a repair center for computers. Mauritius has only selling points. Your laptop has fell down and the hard disk has been damaged and you want your data back? The only way is to send it abroad. So where does the term Cyber Island fit in?
At least the person managed to have internet connection to perform the test in the video, lol.
Without reliable internet, the term cyber island does not make any sense to me because that's the backbone of it all. I keep hearing how Mauritius is linked by fibre optic cables running through the sea to connect to different continents but helas, I don't see any advantage when I'm browsing at home.
What's happened to breaking the monopoly of MT?
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