[p2p-research] Developing countries falling into 'broadband gap'

[Michel Bauwens]

Hi Ryan,

possibly Sepp and the free network service people could answer this, so I've
put them in cc,

http://gigaom.com/2006/02/23/here-comes-open-source-telecom/

Michel

On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 1:03 AM, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Is there such a thing as open source broadband hardware?
>
> Ryan
>
>   On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 11:45 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>>   From: plenary-bounces at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-bounces at wsis-cs.org]
>> On Behalf Of Michel Towa koh
>> Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 8:23 AM
>> To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
>> Cc: list-reseauafricanet at list.reseauafricanet.org;
>> acsis_cameroun at yahoogroupes.fr
>> Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] 'broadband gap'
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Developing countries falling into 'broadband gap'
>> Ola Al-Ghazawy
>> 29 octobre 2009 | EN
>>
>> Much of the developing world is falling behind with broadband access
>> Flickr/abbesses
>> [CAIRO] Limited access to broadband Internet is crippling the spread of
>> information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the developing world
>> and widening the already significant digital divide, a report has warned.
>> Bandwidth availability is low and the cost of broadband Internet is high
>> in many developing countries, says 'Information Economy Report 2009',
>> released last week (22 October) by the UN Conference on Trade and
>> Development (UNCTAD).
>> Prices can reach more than US$1,000 per month in countries such as Burkina
>> Faso and Kazakhstan. Australia, a country with little more than 20 million
>> residents, has more broadband users than the whole of the African continent.
>> This broadband gap deprives developing country businesses of economic
>> development opportunities such as call centres and offshore offices.
>> "Broadband access is almost a must for companies with international
>> branches," Ahmed Ali, a software engineer at computing giant IBM's Egypt
>> branch, told SciDev.Net.
>> While major companies such as his use a satellite Internet connection,
>> smaller companies that provide offshore services for businesses in other
>> regions need a fast communication channel.
>> "If broadband is not sufficient then it will be a problem for them and may
>> hinder progress of their work," he says.
>> But the mobile phone market is booming in the developing world despite the
>> economic crisis, the report found. Mobile phone penetration reached 100 per
>> cent in countries such as Bahrain, South Africa and Qatar. Growth in mobile
>> use increased more than eightfold in less than ten years.
>> Mobiles are becoming the preferred mode of communication over landlines
>> and are increasingly fulfilling ICT needs.
>> "We now see three and four mobile service providers opening up in these
>> countries to fill demand. For many people, it is becoming an important tool
>> for business as well as accessing the Internet," Ahmed Momtaz, a
>> telecommunication engineer at Vodafone Egypt, told SciDev.Net.
>> The report suggests governments can work with Internet providers to narrow
>> the broadband gap by
>> promoting competition to bring down prices and the sharing of
>> infrastructure to reduce costs by preventing duplicate efforts. Governments
>> can also promote Internet centres to offer access to people in poorer
>> regions.
>> The UNCTAD report also calls for the expansion of underwater fibre optics
>> network, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
>>
>> --
>> Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
>> http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
>> http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>>
>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Ryan Lanham
> rlanham1963 at gmail.com
> Facebook: Ryan_Lanham
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>
>


-- 
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Research:
http://www.dpu.ac.th/dpuic/info/Research.html - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
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