"The Impact of Rapid Tech Adoption: Separating Reality from Illusion"

Technology adoption is a transformative step in the way people and businesses interact. Today, we examine the adoption of this trend within the social and business communities.

Zimbabwe, like many other nations, has experienced a shift in industry. The adoption of technology has opened new opportunities while signaling the end of the analog era in social and business development. This shift has brought about various factors; the rise of the digital era has significantly influenced the adoption of modern communication technologies, facilitating easier and more efficient communication services. The presence of consistent and reliable internet infrastructure and services affects both the rate and quality of adoption, playing a crucial role in the expansion of the digital web.

Reality

Data is exchanged, utilized, and created daily. Smartphones have adapted to this by expanding their local storage capacity for easier access. With the sheer volume of data produced each day, cloud storage has emerged as a key solution for managing large quantities of data on the move. Corporations are the primary consumers of storage in the tech industry, as it is often safer to have dedicated secure storage that can be accessed and shared remotely rather than stored locally. The functionality and reality of this system hinge on internet access, which leads to the question: "How reliable are our local internet providers, and are the existing data packages sufficient for full technology adoption in Zimbabwe?"

Illusion

When examining local internet packages, the offerings from providers will reveal whether full technological adoption is a reality or an illusion. The evolution from earlier image technologies has resulted in significantly larger file sizes for image capture. Consequently, sharing and consuming high-quality content requires a sustainable monthly data package that is affordable. With platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Instagram, and Facebook now featuring high-quality content streams, there is a growing need for substantial monthly internet data packages.

According to some sources, an avarage person data consumption per month is as follows.

Average Home Internet Data Usage: The average internet user consumes about 641GB per month on their home internet plan. By the end of 2024, it’s estimated that the average household would use at least 700GB every month1.

1. Cell Phone Data: For your cell phone plan, you need at least 10GB of monthly data.

2. Specific Activities: Here are some estimates for specific activities:

• Streaming video in HD: 300GB per month

• Making video calls on Zoom: 60GB per month

• Running home security cameras: 30GB–300GB per month (depending on video resolution and frequency of activity captured by the cameras)

• Online gaming: 30GB per month

• Web browsing and checking email: 40GB per month

• Streaming music or podcasts: 13GB per month
  

With the listed above we've provided you with some local data packages screenshots.

Rate the local data packages.

• too low for modern use
• good enough
• could be better

Conclusion

Considering the factors at hand, the demand for data packages plays a significant role in accelerating the adoption process. Internet speed is a cornerstone in media consumption and file sharing. Some servers require re-login based on connection duration, and slow speeds can hinder data accessibility due to connection timeouts. The question of whether local network providers offer fair data charges and sufficient data remains open for discussion. Please share your opinions on this matter in the comments section below.