Slashdot Mirror
O3B Details Plan for Satellite-Based Bandwidth For Africa
slash-sa writes "O3B Networks has been quietly preparing itself over the last 12 months for the
moment last week when it announced that it was going to be offering cheap, low-latency satellite bandwidth that can cover any part of Africa by 2010. It has put in place early finance with Google, Liberty Global and HSBC. Here are more details from the entrepreneur behind the project, Greg Wyler."
You'll need those guards to protect the cable after it's buried too, or the local "entrepreneurs" will just dig it up and sell it.
you know what all this bandwidth will be aimed at don't you, given the super cheap labor in africa. call centers and telemarketers. not necessarily a bad thing as it'll bring wealth into the nations that embrace it, but incredibility annoying to everyone else.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
Luckily they come up with their own solutions. Like sharing one mobile phone per town.
It's very sad when you think, what potential is lost down there. Africa has many natural resources, which in itself should make it a pretty rich continent.
But the Internet is a huge chance for them, because you can live in your hut in the middle of an oasis in the Sahara, and still make money as a service business. You only need a brain, an Internet connection, and enough food/water to survive, until you got enough information from the net, to be able to provide and sell those services. Don't think they're unable to quickly understand the Internet, just because it's completely new to them. If it's a child, it does not matter. Give it a year, or less, and it's up to our level.
Oh, I forgot the language barrier. So let's summarize:
Give a teen a laptop like the OLPC, with solar power, full Internet access and an included language course, and in a matter of five years, he's rocking the town. In 10 years he can support others in his town. In 20 years he can bring his town to wealth.
I always found sending food down to be close to murdering children, because in the end, it will not raise their natural resources avaliable to *them*, and there will just be more children to starve... or we would have to send even more food and make them even more dependent.... Two morally very questionable things to do...
Oh well... or we could stop the stranglehold of the WTO...
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Yeah. Run right into it. :(
Normally, I would refrain from calling slashdotters idiots. We are well educated, we know more than the average Joe, we are proud of our intellect... ...yet we are just simple humans, who in bad times can not withstand the full consequences of how much this world beats us down, and survive.
It is this psychological protection of the own reality, that we talked about some hours/days ago, right here on slashdot that protects us from breaking down. And it's a wise tactic, because we in fact survied.
But deep down, we all know... strange lost votes in our proud 1st world countries, our own people captured and tortured for no reason, people of the highest ranks, lying to us, or suddenly forgetting everything, cameras watching every step, the whole population having one foot in the jail because of laws that nobody can know of follow anymore, companies selling hard drugs as calmatives to our childern, and that bribery suddenly is called "lobbying", and we even have to die in wars for interest that go against our own...
I know, I know... you are thinking "It's not *that* bad. You are overreacting. You are wrong! Troll! I can't see this shit!". And I agree.
This is out protection system kicking in, right there. And you can let it go all the way. Accuse me of whatever insult you know.
Because after all is said and done, and it's quiet inside, the feeling of what you really think and feel is going on, is strongest.
Give yourself the time. This is where your intelligence starts thinking up new ways to look away from what you just felt. Observe it as it happens. Knowing of your protection system, and not forgetting what you saw in that quiet moment.
Because then you gain the power to look around the protective layer, if you choose to, without it breaking down your world.
And if protection kicks in again, just justify your reality by knowing that you will not ignore it, because you're way to intelligent and able, to let it slide and live like the cattle, like the average Joe.
I hope, then you - the (wise) people - will rule the country again.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
You're going to need a LOT of fibre to connect even 10% of African households (that's 50 million people).
Also, "More than 90% of the population lives close to the coast." does not seem to be supported by this map of population density.
You are woefully uninformed about Africa and you are reading into this venture.
There are places where people are living on next to nothing, but there are also relatively stable places that would benefit immensely from cheap internet as an enabling factor (Ghana, Nairobi, Joburg) for education and business. Look at what hooking up Pune has done for India.
It seems like any time anyone suggests investing in the tech sector anywhere in Africa, some doofus comes along and links to the Onion's "Tribesman uses modem to crush nut" or talks about how we should focus on "feeding people," whatever that means. You're basically arguing that we shouldn't improve the economy because we need to help the poor instead.
If you want to get educated, App+Frica is a good place to start.
seriously that excuse isn't going to cut it forever. Crime and corruption committed by black people to other black people is NOT the rest of the worlds fault no matter what twisted logic you try apply.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
I live in Uganda, which is the target audience for these satellites. We have 4 mobile providers, all providing GSM services. Mobile services are covered. What is not provided for is cheap IP. 500USD a month for 1 MB is Cheap. Currently the satellite prices are as much as 9000USD. Which is what our ISP would pay. Imagine our pricing or bandwidth sharing scheme! I am currently on a 64Kbps line for 175USD a month. I have a good deal. While the costs and access to communication services have improved tremendously over the last 10 years, there is a very real and true need for the next step. The step where people here can tap into the immense amount of knowledge that the human species is documenting on the Internet. That knowledge, for a great deal, is out of reach of most people here. And it is that knowledge that will eventually lead to the changes here that are so badly needed. This o3b initiative is the most beautiful gift to the African continent, ever.
tackle famine, disease, drought, poverty, ethnic extermination, and tribal infighting...then we can worry about getting the latest nigerian scams to my inbox faster.
if anyones wondering "why satellite" its simple. vast stretches of africa have no electrical infrastructure...let alone water. i have a feeling this entrepreneur just wants to see his name listed next to "brought teh interwebs to afrika furst!!" in the history books.
Good people go to bed earlier.
et's hope by then they'll have mellowed out a bit about it or we'll definitely be seeing worldwar III.
Wake up there, Mister Rip Van Winkle.
We've already seen World War III. And the world lost.