Republic of the Congo's internet messaging access nearly doubles

A new service is bringing email and online chat to people in even the most rural parts of the Central African state of Republic of the Congo via SMS-enabled mobile phones - nearly doubling the population's access to internet messaging.

Warid Congo is transforming its 450,000+ mobile phone subscribers' handsets into virtual smartphones with its new Warid messenger service. The service, provided by ForgetMeNot Africa, enables all Warid Congo's subscribers to send and receive mobile email and online chat messages on any SMS-enabled handset without needing to be connected to the Internet.

Congo's highly literate population - UNICEF figures show that adult literacy was at 87 per cent in 2008 - struggles to access vital information such as healthcare, travel and educational resources. One reason is that only 6.6 per cent of its 3.68 million population use the Internet, according to the latest figures from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Internet connectivity in Congo is still extremely low, even in comparison to the rest of Africa. However, mobile phone subscriptions in the country are booming. ITU figures show 2.17 million Congolese people had a mobile phone subscription in 2009, compared to just 383,700 in 2004. The country now has 89 mobile phone subscriptions to every single fixed telephone line.


Michel Elame, CEO of Warid Congo, said: "Deploying ForgetMeNot Africa software is a clear sign that Warid Congo intends to be the most innovative mobile phone network in Congo. Warid messenger opens up a world of internet messaging to the highly literate Congolese people. They can now send and receive emails and have chat conversations with friends and family from all over the world anytime they like, be it from their armchair, while in the park with their friends or even while doing their shopping. This is a unique innovative offering for Congolese consumers."


Jeremy George, Chief Operating Officer for ForgetMeNot Africa, explained the launch also created the opportunity to roll out the company's technology to millions of French speaking Africans. "Our development work means that ForgetMeNot Africa technology can now serve the 115 million Francophones on the continent," he said. "The launch of Warid messenger expands our footprint across Africa, with our first venture into central Africa following previous launches in east, west and southern Africa.


"Our cloud computing approach is turning even more basic handsets into virtual messaging smartphones. We are giving millions of Africans access to internet messaging which otherwise, for both economic and technical reasons, would be unavailable to them due to a severe lack of internet connectivity and language support."