Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mauritius Aims To Be First Wireless Nation

Posted by Zonk on from the coast-to-coast dept.

hattan writes "This tropical island off the east coast of Africa is best-known for its white-sand beaches, its designer clothing outlets and its spicy curries. But tiny Mauritius is about to stake a new claim to fame. By year's end, or soon afterward, it is expected to become the world's first nation with coast-to-coast wireless Internet." From the article: "An undersea broadband fiber-optic cable, completed three years ago, gives the island fast and reliable phone and Internet links with the rest of Africa and with Europe, India and Malaysia. Many of the country's 1.2 million people--a mix of French, Indian, Chinese and African descendants--are bilingual or trilingual, speaking French, English and either Chinese or Hindi. The country is democratic, peaceful and stable."

6 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's a very historic place. by kaens · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bless the bits?

    --
    kaens.blogspot.com
  2. Geeks in Paradise by axonal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Excuse me? Excuse me, senor? May I speak to you please? I asked for a mai tai, and they brought me a pina colada, and I said no salt, NO salt on the margarita, but it had salt on it, big grains of salt, floating in the glass...

  3. Re:That's just lovely. by metlin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That has, after all, worked so well in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, North Korea, Haiti, Panama, Kosovo, Iran, and India.

    As a matter of fact, it has worked in India, and quite well too - since the day they have gotten independence from the British in 1947, at least.

    In a country of 1.2 billion people, majority Hindus, they've a Muslim President, a Sikh Prime Minister and a Catholic Caucasian female ruling party president. In fact, it's worked better than it does for the US, where except for two Presidents, every other one has been a Caucasian Protestant male.

    Not to mention that India has a free market economy which has been growing by leaps and bounds. And it's quite unsettling that you would compare India (which is quite a broad-minded secular democracy with a growing economy) with countries like Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran - you, sir, just proved that you're as ignorant an idiot as the parent poster you were abusing.

    Bah.

  4. Re:It's a very historic place. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a little known fact, but the Pope's hat is actually a mobile wireless access point, 802.11g I believe...

  5. From someone who lives there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi, I live in Mauritius, the home of the extinct dodo.

    Country's bandwidth to the Internet: 128 Mbps

    Here is some information about Internet connectivity with the biggest ISP, Telecom Plus.
    266 US$/month - Business ADSL 1024/128
    147 US$/month - Business ADSL 512/128
    78 US$/month - Business ADSL 128/64

    40 US$/month - Residential ADSL 128/64
    60 US$/month - Residential ADSL 512/128
    266 US$/month - Residential ADSL 1024/128

    Taken from
    http://www.telecomplus.net/adsl_tariffs.htm
    1 US$ ~Rs 28
    VAT is at 15 %

    Oh, forget about getting dedicated >1mbps connections, they cost over 2,400 US$/month last time I checked.

    Also, Mauritius claims to home the most intelligent building in the world, the Ebene Cybertower.

    See, this is a great place to live, all the peace and quiet is here but if you want to move here to enjoy cheap, fast and reliable internet connectivity, its the wrong place to be.

    Information:
    www.mauritiustelecom.com
    www.gov. mu
    alt.mauritius

    Have a nice day.

  6. Re:Ambitious Maritius by burts · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Let me tell you a little bit about Mauritius. My background: I am mauritian and currently working towards a master's degree in EE in South Africa and i have /. for breakfast... The internet revolution has started here, in a sense. The price of a decent ADSL(128/64) line has dropped drastically during the last few years (abt USD 29 / month). It used to be *much* higher. Now they are introducing wireless internet soon. Things like video-on-demand, internet tv are all being planned here. These are all very nice but educating the public should also be happening hand in hand - and this area of things sucks big time. I would also like to mention that people have no idea as to what is F/OSS! There are very few businesses that use Linux here. People don't even know about FreeBSD (and i suddenly feel alone). I don't need to mention what is the favourite pirated OS in this place. i am sure you can all guess. But what is really annoying is the politics that exists in the government system. It really makes you think twice before trying to get a job here. Meritocracy is not very prevalent. i could go on and on... Curiously it only seems to happen when the General Elections are close!