Rob Nursten
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Rob Nursten was the pioneer of the Full Internet in Zimbabwe, with his son Clint. Rob and Clint Nursten were the suppliers of the first connectivity to the Internet via dial up, which became operational in 1994. They formed a company called Data Control & Systems, Ltd. It grew to be Zimbabwe's premier ISP. The company was ultimately sold to Econet Wireless.
In its initial implementation, it was formed from the South African UUNet Internet Africa domain which was the leader in Africa at that time. Later the domain name was changed to Internet Unlimited with the domain name as internet.co.zw. It was after this that the company was handed over to the management of Ecoweb, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless.
Without the foresight of ‘‘‘Rob Nursten’’’, Internet access in Zimbabwe would have been much delayed. Since those early days, the Government of Zimbabwe has been forced to keep pace (miserably) with the advance of Technology. Unfortunately, the manipulation of bandwidth restrictions imposed by that Government has meant that the initial International link of 1Mb has only ever expanded to 2Mb in the ten year period from 1994 to 2004. Very Small Aperture SATellite (VSAT) was banned for many years as it proved to be too competitive for the Government's liking. VSAT installations meant that the Government could not monitor data transmissions, therefore made VSAT broadcast illegal. To date, VSAT broadcast remains illegal in Zimbabwe after the privatisation of the national telephone operator, Posts & Telecommunications Corporation into TelOne, who regulates the communications industry.
After the formation of Data Control & Systems, the explosion of Internet Service Providers (ISP's) in Zimbabwe grew at a fantastic rate and then a flurry of mergers and acquisitions brought the industry to a near monopoly by Africa Online and Econet Wireless. Even with the vast expansion of users in Zimbabwe, the international links were restricted and, perversely limited in their upgrade apparently to prevent information filtering speedily to the global media on the Zimbabwean Crises under the rule of Robert Mugabe. VOip, Video Broadcast, MultiCast and streaming media are seldom used as the bandwidth is too far below capacity. Due to the technological difficulties faced by ordinary Internet users in Zimbabwe, workaround solutions were needed.
Data Control & Systems were the implementation pioneers of license-free technologies such as the 2.4 GHz spectrum wireless communication solutions. Their initial equipment was based upon the WaveLAN products. Other ISP's such as Samara ISP preferred to use BreezeCOM frequency hoppers, which proved to be less reliable in African Conditions, yet substantially more popular in sales. With the introduction of wireless communications, the expansion of Internet Cafés became the order of the day.
Suddenly, ordinary people on the street were now able to access the Internet and surf the World Wide Web and meet Democracy for the first time. This had an unprecedented effect on the government and its perceived control of information. ISP's were ordered to supply lists of their users and their user's passwords to monitor their data transmissions to which extent the population rebelled. Riots ensued and general anarchy[citation needed] prevailed beginning a silent war on information control. The Internet wins every time as it does not care who does what. True democracy in nature and pure anarchy[citation needed] by Government definition.
In 2005, the Quick 'n Easy chain of Internet Cafe's in Zimbabwe provide Internet access for more than 50,000 people a week all over Zimbabwe. via various. The main connectivity solutions that have been implemented are using the line-of-sight 2.4 GHz wireless aerial at the newer 10Mb connectionless broadcast through Mobile network masts provided by Ecoweb. The legacy systems provided by Data Control & Systems now are the hub of technology and information infrastructure for the average person on the street of Zimbabwe due to the foresight and vision of Rob and Clint Nursten building Data Control & Systems.
Many Zimbabweans rely on their Internet access to communicate with relatives all over the world in order to survive the Mugabe regime.
Of late there has been a significant resortment to V-Sat links since the frame relay by telone is not really reliable. there are three companies with the license to install v-sat in Zimbabwe and these are telone(dataone), africom and data dimension.
Since there is no optic fibre link that goes out of Zimbabwe, the best is to resort to V-Sat communication which is now being used by most companies and banks.
