African Internet Status Updated: July 2002 The use of the Internet has grown relatively rapidly in most urban areas in Africa, in much the same pattern as the adoption of the mobile phone which followed shortly after. As an indication, five years ago, only a handful of countries had local Internet access, now it is available in every capital city. But although these are encouraging trends, the differences between the development levels of Africa and the rest of the world are much wider in this area than they are using more traditional measures of development: Of the approximately 816 million people in Africa in 2001, it is estimated that only: * 1 in 4 have a radio (205m) * 1 in 13 have a TV (62m) * 1 in 35 have a mobile phone (24m) * 1 in 4 in academicwith africadigitaldivide