FINAL ONLINE SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Bachelor of Public Administration
Bachelor of Business Administration
Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting
Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurship
Bachelor of Commerce in Retail Management
PROGRAMME Bachelor of Commerce in Project Management
Bachelor of Commerce in International Business
Bachelor of Commerce in Financial Management
Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing Management
Bachelor of Commerce in Supply Chain Management
Bachelor of Commerce in Information and Technology Management
MODULE Economics 1A
YEAR One (1)
INTAKE January 2023 Semester 1
DATE 03 July 2023
TOTAL MARKS 100
, SECTION A [100 MARKS]
Answer ALL the questions in this section.
Study the following newspaper article and answer the questions based on it that follow.
Starlink could be a game changer
It’s hard for many of us to imagine a world without instant, limitless internet access. Some have even
argued that it should, alongside access to clean water and electricity, be considered a basic human right.
But in fact only 64.4% of the global population as of January 2023 are internet users. Asia and Europe are
home to most of the people who are connected.
Africa comes in third. However, accessibility varies wildly across the continent. About 66% of people in
southern Africa are internet users. In east Africa the figure is 26%; it is just 24% in central Africa. People in
rural areas have far less access than those in the continent’s urban areas.
Internet access opens up the world in many ways. It can entertain, educate, enable payments and even
bolster democracy.
That’s why advances in providing internet access to people in Africa are worth celebrating. In January 2023,
the US company SpaceX, which manufactures and launches spacecraft and communication satellites,
announced that its Starlink service was available in Nigeria. This was a first for the continent. It has also
since become available in Rwanda.
Starlink is a satellite-based internet service. It is set to be rolled out elsewhere on the continent, including
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Tanzania, later this year. More coverage is to come in
2024.
This could be an important way to fill Africa’s connectivity gaps, which have arisen because of poor digital
infrastructure and the high costs of investing in fibre optic cables or mobile phone masts, particularly in
rural and remote areas. The United Nations has a strategy for reaching universal access across Africa by
2030, but this won’t be possible without innovative approaches.
Starlink is one such innovation. Since all its users are tapping into the same infrastructure, in space, there’s
less need for erecting mobile phone masts or laying fibre optic cable on land.
What is Starlink?
Starlink is a network of thousands of satellites located close to the Earth – about 550km from the planet’s
surface – that provide broadband internet access.
Of course, satellites are already used for internet connectivity. But a traditional internet satellite is a single
geostationary object; its position in orbit is fixed in relation to the Earth. These satellites are also located
more than 35,000km from Earth, so it takes a long time for the signal to reach the end user. As anyone who
has tried to use the internet in a remote area knows, the further a signal travels, the worse it gets, so
traditional internet satellites tend to be slow and can be unreliable. They aren’t able to adequately support
activities like live streaming, online gaming and video calls.
Bachelor of Public Administration
Bachelor of Business Administration
Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting
Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurship
Bachelor of Commerce in Retail Management
PROGRAMME Bachelor of Commerce in Project Management
Bachelor of Commerce in International Business
Bachelor of Commerce in Financial Management
Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing Management
Bachelor of Commerce in Supply Chain Management
Bachelor of Commerce in Information and Technology Management
MODULE Economics 1A
YEAR One (1)
INTAKE January 2023 Semester 1
DATE 03 July 2023
TOTAL MARKS 100
, SECTION A [100 MARKS]
Answer ALL the questions in this section.
Study the following newspaper article and answer the questions based on it that follow.
Starlink could be a game changer
It’s hard for many of us to imagine a world without instant, limitless internet access. Some have even
argued that it should, alongside access to clean water and electricity, be considered a basic human right.
But in fact only 64.4% of the global population as of January 2023 are internet users. Asia and Europe are
home to most of the people who are connected.
Africa comes in third. However, accessibility varies wildly across the continent. About 66% of people in
southern Africa are internet users. In east Africa the figure is 26%; it is just 24% in central Africa. People in
rural areas have far less access than those in the continent’s urban areas.
Internet access opens up the world in many ways. It can entertain, educate, enable payments and even
bolster democracy.
That’s why advances in providing internet access to people in Africa are worth celebrating. In January 2023,
the US company SpaceX, which manufactures and launches spacecraft and communication satellites,
announced that its Starlink service was available in Nigeria. This was a first for the continent. It has also
since become available in Rwanda.
Starlink is a satellite-based internet service. It is set to be rolled out elsewhere on the continent, including
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Tanzania, later this year. More coverage is to come in
2024.
This could be an important way to fill Africa’s connectivity gaps, which have arisen because of poor digital
infrastructure and the high costs of investing in fibre optic cables or mobile phone masts, particularly in
rural and remote areas. The United Nations has a strategy for reaching universal access across Africa by
2030, but this won’t be possible without innovative approaches.
Starlink is one such innovation. Since all its users are tapping into the same infrastructure, in space, there’s
less need for erecting mobile phone masts or laying fibre optic cable on land.
What is Starlink?
Starlink is a network of thousands of satellites located close to the Earth – about 550km from the planet’s
surface – that provide broadband internet access.
Of course, satellites are already used for internet connectivity. But a traditional internet satellite is a single
geostationary object; its position in orbit is fixed in relation to the Earth. These satellites are also located
more than 35,000km from Earth, so it takes a long time for the signal to reach the end user. As anyone who
has tried to use the internet in a remote area knows, the further a signal travels, the worse it gets, so
traditional internet satellites tend to be slow and can be unreliable. They aren’t able to adequately support
activities like live streaming, online gaming and video calls.
