[geeks] $100 One Laptop Per Child - grist for the mill

[Dan Duncan]

On Sat, 18 Nov 2006, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> --There are cell phone network everywhere in Africa and Asia, with 3 or
> 4 carriers even in run-down places like Nigeria.  All the equipment is
> new and has 3G and MMS GPRS, etc. capability.  Lots (and I mean lots)
> of people have cell phones, so what you need is a USB cable to go
> between the cell phone and the OLPC and a tiny device driver.

A friend of mine moved back to Africa several years ago and was working
for Vodaphone.  I've lost touch, but he was sending regular updates
for a while.  He had some pretty interesting stories about deploying
cellphone towers.  Each tower was assembled and tested elsewhere, then
carried by helicopter and set in place.  The helicopter would then land
and the crew would get out and anchor the tower down and aim the microwave
relays to the nearest tower in the chain and cellphones could then be sold
to anyone in the surrounding area who wanted them.  The towers were solar
powered and the most rural areas benefitted by getting the latest technology.
Up until recently, someone might have no indoor plumbing or electricity but
still have access to better cellphones than I did.  In the last few years
we've finally gotten decent cellphone technology in the US.

He also had a story about how government pensions were paid out to people
in rural villages.  There was a truck with ATM machines built into it that
made a monthly circuit around the country.  When it rolled into town, people
used the latest in biometric technology to withdraw their monthly pensions.
The truck was escorted by heavily armed vehicles and was often subject to
bandits.  They paid out a lot of money to informants and were insured by Lloyd's
of London and had the option of using a helicopter to lift the truck in if
there was enough risk of attack.

-DanD

-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
# What is it that makes a complete stranger dive into an icy river to save a
# solid gold baby? Maybe we'll never know.  -DEEP THOUGHTS