Level of poverty has remained very high in Africa in the past, and also the present. The 2006 report on the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) states that 44% of Africans live on less than US$ 1 a day. However, the same MDG report details the dramatic advances achieved in other world regions during recent decades. For many rural or poor Africans, however, using a computer or even a telephone remains a dream. Akossi Akossi, Secretary General of the African Telecommunications Union, describes the lack of ICT infrastructure throughout the continent as "cruel."
Despite its small size, a VSAT can carry Internet, data, voice, fax, and video signals. With VSAT, virtually any entrepreneur, small business, public institution, or individual (by way of a rural cyber café or telecentre) can immediately connect to the Internet or make a phone call — no matter how far they may be from fixed lines.