SECTOR 2 2.11 The country has a coherent ICT policy and/or the government implements promotional measures, which aim to meet the information needs of citizens, including marginalised communities. Literally, Congo’s ICT sector is evolving on auto pilot. There is no coherent ICT policy and each sub-sector appears to be developing at its own rhythm. Some legislation and regulatory framework exist in the areas of mobile telephone and internet service provision but none to promote the use of ICTs by the wider public. “The government mainly focuses on mobile phones.” Mobile telephone penetration has gone up over the years mainly as a result of market forces: high competition, low cost and cheap hand sets. The country now has four service providers, one of the highest network-population ratio in the sub-region. But elsewhere, the quality of internet services, especially for the wider public, has remained poor. The number of internet cafés in the country fell from 250 to 100 in two years, according to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Bank study released in 2007. Problems include low speed, unreliable connectivity and power cuts that can last for months in some parts of the big cities. The government has been talking about setting up optic fibres to introduce broadband internet for more than ten years, but no action has so far followed. There have been efforts to equip some government offices with computers, but in the true sense of the expression, the computerisation of the public administration is limited. The public broadcaster for example was connected to the internet for a few months but the system broke down and was never repaired. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 1.4 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO 2013 99