Google Brings High-Speed Internet to Uganda's Capital

Technology company Google has brought reliable Internet connections to Kampala, Uganda.

Google is expanding high-speed Internet in the city, the company said. The project includes 120 locations in the Ugandan capital. It is part of an attempt to improve web infrastructure in Africa.

Higher capacity means faster and cheaper access to customers. One day of unlimited data using the new network should cost 1,000 Ugandan shillings, the company said. That is equal to 30 American cents.


Men work on their laptops at the Endiro Cade in Kampala on November 11, 2011. In 2010 the number of Internet users in Uganda rose to 4 million people: more than 1 in 10 of the population, according to statistics from the Uganda Communications. In 2015, 8.5 million Ugandans use the Internet.

About 8.5 million people use the Internet in Uganda. That is about 23 percent of the country's population. Many in that country use cellular phone technology, but Internet service is not popular because it was expensive before Google's Project Link.

Broadband access to the Internet is still hard to find in many places in Africa. Project Link moved into the Ghana cities of Accra and Kumasi this autumn.

Other big players on the Internet also aided Africa. Social media's Facebook announced this fall better access to the Internet in Africa by using satellites.

Jim Dresbach wrote this story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.