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Google Invests In Broadband For Poorer Countries
Chris Wilson writes "According to the Financial Times, Google has announced their support for a new initiative called O3B to 'bring internet access to 3bn people in Africa and other emerging markets by launching at least 16 satellites to bring its services to the unconnected' by 2010. Coverage is available from Yahoo and the Wall Street Journal as well. 'The $750m project to connect mobile masts in a swath of countries within 45 degrees of the equator to fast broadband networks ... could bring the cost of bandwidth in such markets down by 95 per cent.' This will probably be the largest single investment in network infrastructure for developing countries in history. Google clearly wishes to use this project to enable broadband Internet access in developing regions, but many other things must be in place before that can happen, including fixed power infrastructure, PCs or OLPCs, technical support and skills, and useful content and services for areas with lower literacy."
This will probably be the largest single investment in network infrastructure for developing countries in history. Google clearly wishes to use this project to enable broadband Internet access in developing regions...
Ok. Let's get a few things straight here. Phrases like "will probably" and "clearly wishes" are indicative of slant because they don't tell me anything. Let me tell you what's clear here: Google is making an upfront investment to reach 3 billion new customers. Yes, it's great news for those people but I will spell out the only motive Google has--they do not want another homegrown Baidu popping up in Swahili or any other language. They will reach these people first and hand them Google in their native language.
Google's going to bring these people broadband at 95% of their current price and Google's going to make massive profit. In 2007, Google netted $4.2 billion. They are supporting O3B because it is a smart business move and their stock will go up because of it.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing, it's great for the people but Google's only motive is "How do we reach the other 1/2 of the world's population with our services?"
My work here is dung.
That's where all tech support departments are these days.
Food, water and broadband.
For only $99/month*, you could provide a child with Facebook and MySpace.
(*) For the first year of service. Offer void where prohibited by law. Not really. Please see a doctor if broadband persists for more than four hours.
45 degrees either side of the equator is a pretty wide 'belt'.
Even with those caveats such a system might be more usable for those within the coverage zone than many current US broadband providers' connections are.
Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
Will being able to communicate easily give people more ambition or will they hit 4chan first and decide that the rest of the world is a pit of evil that has to be avoided at all cost...
I'm still waiting for broadband here in the US. That last mile is a killer...
"but many other things must be in place before that can happen"
Sure. But satellites would be probably the most costly and the most steep step.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
16 satellites in LEO, meaning intermittent coverage, plus they will need spares and steerable ground antennas.
They're going to use the satellites for long haul & 3g masts for last mile.
and it seems pretty expensive for covering only a belt around the equator.
45 degrees is half way to the north/south poles.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Marketing is great, innit?
"They cannot afford our product, so lets artificially accelerate their development until such point that they can, and then sell them out product"
Not that I, paying ZAR70 per gig for internet access, mind at all. Hell, bring it on - those monopolistic providers here in Africa, please, by all means, hand their asses to them.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
*sigh* How much food and HIV care/prevention can you get for $750m? Priorities people! But then again there's no money to be made in that I suppose :(
Useful for streaming and downloading large files perhaps, but probably a bit of a PITA if you want to do something like online gaming or some quick web browsing, because satellites=high latency. Not saying it's a bad thing though, it's a good start :)
Someone above made a comment about this just being about advertising and google's business - well sure it will benefit them in the long run, but in the short term they're not going to make much advertising money from countries who can't even afford the infrastructure in the first place. I think this is most definitely a Good thing to do, whatever the motives. People who are always trying to make out like Google are actually evil need to get a grip. Businesses exist to make a profit, but Google also is conducting business in such a way as to benefit computer users in general. Think of the large limits on GMail inboxes forcing Hotmail to provide a similar service (my inbox space jumped from 200MB to 2GB), and Google Docs creating competition for Office, etc. I still think Google is a very 'good' company as companies go.
which is totally what she said
But, hey, why not spend a few billion to get an African peasant farmer a 1 Meg connection?
There are already people doing that. Educating people to boost their skill levels and economies would enable them to buy their own food and learn to dig their own wells.. I know I'd rather be self sufficient than live on hand-outs all the time (though I admit it's pretty easy to say that when I'm nowhere near starving or destitute)
which is totally what she said
and they could actuarially revolutionize life in the developing world.
Take all the data from the satellite, crunch it through Precision Agriculture systems to generate recommendations for crop care (and even crop selection), and then distribute the results over the broadband network, along with things like video tutorials for farming techniques.
Boing Boing has a post on the basics of precision agriculture here: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/09/agroveillance-using.html
http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/hexayurt/supercomputer-applications-for-the-developing-world-375
Was an approach to doing this based on repurposing military imagery.
Really could change the world in a big way, food security for all.
Hexayurt - open source refugee shelter,
If you had RTFS, you would understand that these LOW EARTH ORBIT satellites offer a 100ms latency... not bad.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Things I anticipate doing once these 3 billion people are hooked up:
-Send the first goatse link
-Be the first to solicit cybersex
-and ask "a/s/l?"
-Degenerate various African languages into their equivalents of "AOLspeak."
-Accuse them of being teenage boys unless they "show pics"
-ATTN: Dear Sir/M, I am Mr. Johnathan Ashcroft. an Auditor of a BANK OF THE WASHINGTON, DC. (FCT). I have the courage to Crave indulgence for this important business believing that you will never let me down either now or in the future.
Maybe you should call Google and tell them. You seem to know much more than the engineers that have been thinking about this.
c++;
They could use it, sure.
However, countries in Africa could really use a 4 billion dollar investment into Concentrated solar power.
4 billion is all that it would take to make the necessary power for the entire continent out of sun power, mirrors, and liquid salt and some high power lines.
Once you get past the corruption anyways.
I'm just back home after three weeks in Lusaka, Zambia, where our vsat link running at 128kbps up, 384kbps down is costing us just over $2,000USD per month. Yes, geo sync sat latency is a pain, but we'd take affordable bandwidth whatever way we can get it. Against this kind of price gauging, people are still making it work (http://link.net.zm/?q=node/230), but there like everywhere else, early adoption is costly (http://link.net.zm/?q=node/217).
Return on Investment
MS hands out free copies of Windows to schools, get the kids use to Windows at an early age so when they grow up they buy legit copies.
Google puts a satelite in orbit to give broadband access to a new market, who do you think gets the ad revenue when hundres of millions of people gain access to the internet courtesy of Google?
My litmus test is this, if you replace Google with Microsoft in the story, how does it sound?
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Even parts of Canada are within that region...