VOA标准英语2009年-Mobile Phone Use Soars in Africa

By Selah Hennessy
London
22 October 2009 

The United Nations has released a report that says mobile phone use is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world. The report also says Internet connections have a long way to go. 

 
Mobile phone use soars in Africa
The mobile phone industry in Africa has defied the global economic crisis with a monumental boom in mobile subscriptions¹ between 2003 and 2008. In five years the number of subscriptions grew by more than 500 percent. 

Torbjorn Fredriksson of the U.N. conference on Trade and Development says the growth in mobile phone use is important in both a social and economic sense. 

"Companies can use the mobile phones to obtain information about market developments, farmers can get information about weather forecasts and increasingly we see new mobile services emerging such as banking² transactions and new ways of transmitting remittances³ between people and that has a very strong impact on the way that people and companies can do business in Africa," Fredriksson said.

He says in Gabon, the Seychelles, and South Africa there are 100 mobile subscriptions for every 100 people.

But he says mobile connectivity is not consistent throughout the continent.

In Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia, the mobile industry has only penetrated⁴ 10 percent of the population.

And he adds that while mobile phone use is rising, Internet access remains⁵ slow and costly⁶. 

"African countries are lagging behind not only developed countries, but also other developing regions in terms of fast access to the Internet," Fredriksson said.

The U.N. report says monthly Internet access in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic and Swaziland is more than $1,300, the highest in the world. And only five countries - Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia - account for 90 percent of Africa's broadband subscriptions.

Fredriksson says a big problem is that up until now Africa has largely been excluded from the mesh⁷ of international fiber-optic cables that would carry telecommunications between Africa and the rest of the world.

But he says that seems to be changing. 

"Now in July we saw Seacom, a new cable that links the east coast of Africa with Europe and India and there is another one called the TEAMS cable which will link Kenya with the United Arab Emirates later in 2009," Fredriksson said. "So these are promising⁸ signs but it remains a tremendous challenge to get the broadband connectivity up to the levels in other parts of the world."

While Internet access in Africa remains largely elusive⁹, according to the U.N. report wireless¹⁰ Internet is spreading fast in other developing regions. India registered almost 100-million new wireless subscriptions in the first half of 2009.

 

1 subscriptions   

n.（报刊等的）订阅费( subscription的名词复数 )；捐款；（俱乐部的）会员费；捐助

参考例句：

• Subscriptions to these magazines can be paid in at the post office. 这些杂志的订阅费可以在邮局缴纳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Payment of subscriptions should be made to the club secretary. 会费应交给俱乐部秘书。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

3 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网

4 penetrated   

adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The knife had penetrated his chest. 刀子刺入了他的胸膛。
• They penetrated into territory where no man had ever gone before. 他们已进入先前没人去过的地区。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

7 mesh   

n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络

参考例句：

• Their characters just don't mesh.他们的性格就是合不来。
• This is the net having half inch mesh.这是有半英寸网眼的网。

8 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

9 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

10 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。