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

[Paul D. Fernhout]

Part of the OLPC project was to create wireless meshes. The hardware for 
that was not entirely open though, as it uses commercial chips.
   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Mesh_Network_Details

And it still needs some kind of portal to the internet.

Some references to free software in relation to that:
   http://www.mail-archive.com/devel@laptop.org/msg02695.html

--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/


Michel Bauwens wrote:
> 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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