Google announced on Monday that it would provide free online communication services such as e-mail and Internet telephone calling to universities in Kenya and Rwanda.The Mountain View, California-based Internet search engine giant said it had partnered with the Rwandan Ministry of Infrastructure and the Kenya Education Network to deliver hosted Google Apps software applications.
Students in both African countries as well as Rwandan government officials will get to use online tools including shared calendars, instant messaging and word processing, Google said.
"This partnership will be a boost in terms of services offered to our Rwandan Academic Institutions, allowing them to collaborate," said Rwanda's minister of energy and communications, Albert Butare.
"I believe communication between students and their lecturers will be enhanced as users throughout the country will now be using the same state-of-the-art, cutting-edge technology that is available in other parts of the world."
The National University of Rwanda, Kigali Institute for Education, and the Kigali Institute for Science and Technology in Rwanda will get access to Google Apps Education Edition in the initial phase of the project.
Rwanda's government ministries will use Google Apps Standard Edition.
Initially, approximately 20,000 users in Rwanda will be able to use the Google services.
The University of Nairobis 50,000 students will be the first to be offered Google Apps for Education in Kenya.
The services will later be extended to 150,000 Kenyan students at universities across the country.
"For us, universality is crucial because we believe everyone should have access to the same services wherever they live, whatever their language and regardless of income," said Google senior vice president Shona Brown.
"I look forward to working with other African governments to make life-enhancing services like free e-mail, instant messaging and PC-to-PC phone calls more widely available across Africa."
In a style considered a defining trait of "Web 2.0," the software to run the applications is hosted on Google computers, freeing users of needing to install or maintain programs on their own machines.
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