Telecommunication reforms in Zambia and the subsequent liberalisation of the international gateway was perceived as one of the means of promoting social and economic growth in both the urban and rural areas of the country. The outcome of this undertaking propelled the rapid development of Internet which has evidently brought about unprecedented paradigm shifts in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It is indisputable that ICTs, and the Internet in particular, have revolutionalised the way we communicate today. Furthermore, the penetration of ICTs to other spheres of our daily lives is evidence enough that the impacts thereof go beyond mere communicative facets of our lives. However, many challenges arose in the implementation of telecommunications reforms. In order to achieve the status quo, government had to make strategic liberalisation policies in the telecoms sector that saw the opening up of the international communication gateways to the private sector. This is in tandem with the fact that the relationship between government (through its formulation of policies and regulations) and other stakeholders determines the ability of a country to generate and use advanced knowledge for industrial competitiveness. As such, in this paper, we present the genesis and evaluate the impacts associated with the telecommunications reforms and the subsequent liberalisation of international communication gateways, and Internet development in Zambia. We further consider the challenges this has brought about and discuss possible future directions. This is helpful in forecasting the future landscape of the ICT sector considering that the country seeks to achieve universal coverage of both Internet and communication facilities to all Zambians across the country.

中文翻译：

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赞比亚国际门户和互联网发展的自由化：成因，机遇，挑战和未来方向

赞比亚的电信改革以及随后的国际门户开放被认为是促进该国城乡​​地区社会和经济增长的手段之一。这项工作的结果推动了互联网的快速发展，互联网的发展显然带来了信息和通信技术（ICT）使用史无前例的转变。毫无疑问，ICT，尤其是互联网，彻底改变了我们今天的交流方式。此外，信息通信技术渗透到我们日常生活的其他领域也足以证明，信息通信技术的影响已经超出了我们生活中交流的范围。但是，在实施电信改革中出现了许多挑战。为了达到现状，政府必须在电信部门制定战略自由化政策，以开放通向私营部门的国际通信门户。这与政府（通过制定政策和法规）与其他利益相关者之间的关系决定了一个国家为工业竞争力而产生和利用先进知识的能力的事实相吻合。因此，在本文中，我们介绍了起源，并评估了与电信改革，随后的国际通信网关自由化以及赞比亚的互联网发展相关的影响。我们将进一步考虑由此带来的挑战，并讨论未来的可能方向。