Internet Shutdown in Cameroon is Expensive - Internet Sans Frontières
Since January 17, 2017, populations residing in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon are totally deprived of the Internet. The cut of access to international bandwidth took place in these two regions, where demonstrations haven been raging since November 2016.
Although no official reason has been given to date, Internet Sans Frontières received confirmation that the main telecommunications operators have been ordered by the government to cut access in two “precise locations in Cameroon” due to Alleged threats to national security.
In an open letter to the President of the Republic of Cameroon, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and the Minister of Communication, civil society organizations, including Internet Sans Frontières, Access Now, The World Wide Foundation, Or Pen International are calling on the Cameroonian Government to respect its international commitments and to restore Internet connection on the whole national territory. The Global Network Initiative, which brings together digital companies, telecommunications operators, civil society and academia, to protect freedom of expression and privacy online, said in a statement that it is concerned by restrictions on access to Internet ordered by the Government.
Violation of Human Rights
In their open letter, the organizations remind that the UN condemns the voluntary interruption of Internet access, such practices violate fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in UN texts, in particular freedom of expression. Moreover, by cutting off the flow of information, attacks on the physical integrity of citizens, or arbitrary arrests, become possible without fear of external scrutiny.
In Cameroon, since the Internet shutdown, lawyers, judges at the Supreme Court, demonstrators are arrested and brought before the military court, accused of terrorism. Cameroon, at war against Boko Haram, has adopted an anti-terrorist law, which some civil society organizations and opposition political parties fear may be used to silence political dissent.
Significant economic consequences
The Internet shutdown affecting Anglophone regions of Cameroon also has economic consequences: banks and money transfer agencies, which are closed, entrepreneurs who are blocked, a significant part of the economic activity has been slowed down and even stopped for 15 days.
More worryingly, the capital of South-West Cameroon is Buéa, Silicon Mountain, where many SMEs developed thanks to the digital, and contribute greatly to the development of a digital economy, called for by the President of the Republic Paul Biya, in his message to the youth of February 11, 2016.
Ordering the shutdown of the Internet prevents the development of this digital economy, and impacts the national economy.
Conscious of this major challenge, public and private organizations have developed methodologies to calculate the cost of voluntary Internet shutdowns. In December 2016, Internet Sans Frontières calculated the cost of cutting access to social media for six months in Chad (fr), based on the calculation method proposed by the Brookings Institution.
In Cameroon, with the help of Access Now, we estimated the cost of the Internet shutdown since 17 January 2017 in the North-West and South-West regions, using the methodology proposed by the Global Network Initiative and Deloitte, which relies in particular on the impact of bandwidth usage and the speed of the latter on the economy of a country.
According to our estimates, in the last 15 days, the Internet shutdown in Anglophone regions of Cameroon already cost 723,000 dollars, or 675,000 euros, or 443,000,000 CFA francs.
In its report, page 6, Deloitte specifies that:
32 commentaires
Cameroon’s Silicon Mountain is suffering losses from the country's internet shutdown — Quartz
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[…] week in the past marketing campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking entry to the web over the earlier two weeks had price companies as much as $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week in the past marketing campaign group Web Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking entry to the web over the earlier two weeks had value companies as much as $723,000 […]
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[…] flytta och även bankerna har haft stora problem med att få tag i och föra över pengar. Enligt Internet Sans Frontiéres ska skadorna för bristen än så länge närma sig sju miljoner kronor. Något som kan låta lite […]
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[…] advocacy groups Internet Sans Frontières and Access Now, the first 15 days of the shutdown cost Cameroon the equivalent of USD […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
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[…] from the Cameroon Government is presently facing a threat to its very existence. According to Internet Sans Frontiere, the blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks in west Cameroon costs businesses […]
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[…] week ago campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking access to the internet over the previous two weeks had cost businesses up to $723,000 […]
Kelli Arena
Reaching out on behalf of Al Jazeera English. Our global affairs program UpFront would like to interview you re: Cameroon. Can you please tell me who to contact? The interview would need to be conducted in English.
Julie Owono
Dear Kelli, thank you for your message. I will send you and email.
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[…] the ban, but many have speculated that it is linked to the protests. According to activist group Internet Sans Frontieres, the ban—which left about 20 percent of the population without internet access—cost the […]
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[…] the ban, but many have speculated that it is linked to the protests. According to activist group Internet Sans Frontieres, the ban—which left about 20 percent of the population without internet access—cost the […]
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[…] Cameroon’s outage started on January 17 when net access went dead nationally, and then in the North-West and South-West regions of the country, according to Dyn Research, and Internet Without Borders. […]
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[…] Cameroon’s outage started on January 17 when net access went dead nationally, and then in the North-West and South-West regions of the country, according to Dyn Research, and Internet Without Borders. […]
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[…] Cameroon’s outage started on January 17 when net access went dead nationally, and then in the North-West and South-West regions of the country, according to Dyn Research, and Internet Without Borders. […]
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[…] week in the past marketing campaign group Internet Sans Frontieres estimated that blocking entry to the web over the earlier two weeks had value companies as much as $723,000 […]
Digital Oil & Silicon Mountains – Herald Africa
[…] businesses. In March, an estimate provided by the cyber activist group Internet without Borders put the cost of this shutdown to roughly 44,000,000 CFA (USD 723 […]