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Bringing Bandwidth To Iraq
jemevans sends us a link to his nonfiction tale of two California cypherpunks who went to Baghdad to seek their fortune and bring the Internet to Iraq. A much abridged version ran in Wired a while back. From the original: "Ryan Lackey wears body armor to business meetings. He flies armed helicopters to client sites. He has a cash flow problem: he is paid in hundred-dollar bills, sometimes shrink-wrapped bricks of them, and flowing this money into a bank is difficult. He even calls some of his company's transactions 'drug deals' — but what Lackey sells is Internet access. From his trailer on Logistics Staging Area Anaconda, a colossal US Army base fifty miles north of Baghdad, Lackey runs Blue Iraq, surely the most surreal ISP on the planet. He is 26 years old."
I serve in the Arizona Army National Guard. I just got back last November from a one-year stint in Iraq.
We used to get our internet access from an internet trailer that we had. We also had a (barely usable) wireless network set-up from our internet tent. As far as I know, a lot of the internet providers we used were satellite providers. In fact, we got so sick of the really crappy internet, that we shelled out money to buy a satellite dish, a satellite modem, and internet access. Split between the members of one platoon, it was about $60 a month. Our contact was an Iraqi who ran his business from off-base. He had a contact on-base that would help us out if we had any issues. It worked fine most of the time (unless we had severe dust-storms). The contact that the internet guy had on-base was actually an Iraqi electrical engineer. From what I heard, most businesses (and most people on the base) got their internet from satellite internet providers. It was pretty pricey and the only way you could manage it is if you got a huge bunch of people to sign up. In fact, that's what they used at the Internet tent. It was called FUBI Internet (For Us/US By Iraqis Internet).
This is the first time I'm hearing about this guy, or the company. I was stationed on Camp Liberty, which is a huge base in its own right. We were some hours away from Anaconda (I think 12? I don't remember rightly anymore). All the stuff we used there (that I know of, and my scope is just our internet trailer, internet tent, and platoon internet; the division MWR used internet but it was some connection from USAREUR (US Army Europe)) was from gulf (or greek or italian) satellite providers.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
At least some of the facts are wrong.
For instance, the claim of 75 net cafes nationwide prewar is bogus, there were more than that in Iraqi Kurdistan alone. They say the Erbil office failed because there's not enough business. Closer to the truth would be to say it failed because there was already an entrenched network of trusted local operators.
South of the Kurdish line, there were (and are) huge numbers of little ISPs. They arrange for satellite service from Jordan, then bring the dishes into Iraq. In the old days, when banking was still a total catastrophe, they paid their bills by sending people with cash strapped to their bodies overland into Jordan, where they'd wire the money to their upstream provider. These days it's a little easier.
Ultimately, I think this article - like so many others about Iraq - is written from the perspective of someone who is hiding in the green zone behind soldiers and armoured cars and doesn't have a great idea of what's really going on.
P.S. Just arrived in Dubai for a little R&R. It's 2:30am and they're blasting the call to prayer at my hotel balcony while I'm trying to sit out here peacefully and post to Slashdot. What the hell?
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
It isn't mentioned until well down in the article, but many Slashdot readers may remember Ryan Lackey as part of the team that founded Sealand/HavenCo, the offshore data haven that was featured on the cover of Wired in 2000. Sealand's launch and struggles were discussed here on /. The guy clearly has an appetite for adventure.
RichM
Data Center Knowledge
that's be DSN phone network, not DNS phone network....
I hope you realize that the amount of USD circulating is enormous and physical currency is only a small fraction of what's out there. Most of it almost never makes it back to the US and certainly isn't created merely by selling bonds. Try reading up on fractional reserve banking and you might be a bit more informed.
The US is a popular currency because we've got a 200+ year record of not defaulting on our debts. Virtually nobody else can match that and people will bid up our money to absurd lengths to buy into that security record. There are lots of rich people who own worthless, defaulted bonds from all over the world but the US keeps paying its debts.
To keep the value of the USD reasonably valued, we have to constantly inject new currency into the market. Reducing the amount of money out there is as simple as the Federal reserve upping US bank reserve requirements a bit, reducing the amount that can be created through new loans.
I am the Tyler Wagner from the article. At the risk of exposing myself (further) to the flames of Slashdot, I'd be happy to answer questions.
Pictures:
http://www.tolaris.com/gallery/Iraq
The Mohammed story:
http://giantlaser.livejournal.com/56797.html
http://giantlaser.livejournal.com/56863.html
Sadly, coming from a military background myself, you hit the nail on the head.
There are many good things that have happened downrange, but hardly anyone hears it because "Good News" doesn't sell unless you're some pop-idol that just got a face lift - or, you're Sanjay and just got voted off AI...
Now, AFN does show this type of stuff, but it's not picked up by the main media (I'm guessing it's shown to them..) The bad side of this is that AFN plays mainly OCONUS (overseas for those of you that haven't a clue) and only shows informational things to troops. So I see safety commercials 24/7 with Good and Bad news thrown in. The Good news is normally played over and over and over, to the point where we can mute the TV and say exactly what they are (That should be a Security question for all military personnel - "Who is Squeakers?"). The families overseas normally get excited when a normal commercial gets into the mix...
But, back on topic, good news doesn't sell. People only want to hear the bad things. Sadly, I know several people that refuse to watch the news (my wife, being one) specifically because it's only the bad stuff. The American public is so ignorant (in the true sense of the word) of whats going on down there. All they hear is X soldiers died...X Civilians died. They don't hear how many water plants are operational, they don't hear how we're attempting to fix the power but the locals keep cutting down towers so they sell the metal....
Another potential factor: They had a lot to prove. The power vacuum in northern Iraq provided them with their first opportunity at autonomy in modern times, and it's no doubt important for them to demonstrate that the Kurdish people can run a unified and viable state given the opportunity.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS