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Providing Wireless In the World's Most Dangerous and Remote Places
grcumb writes "The Economist magazine is running a brief profile of Digicel, a 'minnow' in the wireless telecoms market that has distinguished itself by setting up shop in some of the most unlikely (and dangerous) markets in the world, including Haiti and Papua New Guinea, whose capital, Port Moresby, has one of the highest murder rates in the world."
I dare him to make a regular - wired - connection to my mother in law. Then they will know what dangerous truly means!
Original submitter here.
The point I find most interesting in all this is that Digicel succeeds by defying conventional wisdom about supply and demand. They simply create supply and trust local demand to rise. Here's the second paragraph of the original submission:
"If you just focus on risk, you can't do a thing," said Digicel's billionaire president Denis O'Brien in a 2008 Forbes profile. But O'Brien's small-market revolution should teach us another lesson, too: Traditional economic analysis doesn't work when it comes to communications. Telecommunications is a supply-driven economy. If you build it — no matter where you build it — they will come.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
This post was made from a Digicel connection from my yacht (currently in Tonga).
Digicel works better than some Pacific internet connections. It isn't fast, but no connections are out here. It is relatively affordable: eight hours of internet time in Tonga is ~USD15, while eight hours in French Polynesia is about EUR40 (USD55).
said Digicel's billionaire president
hence Digicel's $4.3 billion debt
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
How do they get wireless routers to operate in an environment filled with so much fear? I'd be dropping packets left and right. "Is that guy going to kill me?! checksum error." "That guy has a knife! No route to destination." Packet, packet, packet, pac--ARGH, THEY GOT ME!
Heh, yeah. Here in Vanuatu at least one tower was dragged down by locals because of a land dispute.
By and large, though, people tend to protect the things they value. This Forbes profile of Denis O'Brien reports that, during a period of rioting and looting in Haiti, people actually guarded the towers, because they saw Digicel as being on their side.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
I fail to see the 'unconventional' here - as if people in [underdeveloped country of your choice] don't want to talk to each other. Or somehow network effects or being able to connect to the rest of the world doesn't count, just because your cell tower is the first in the area.
So you can't really say Digicel created such market(s) IMHO. It's more like the market did exist, and (by taking a big risk) they where the first to crack it open. Kudoz to them for having the balls, but that's about it. What it does show, is that (potentially) you can sell telecoms gear anywhere where there are people. And in a booming market, no less. Oh wait... news at 11.
Likewise, the article's premise of 'build infrastructure & clients will come' is nonsense. Put cellphone network in the middle of the Atlantic, and all it will do is sink.
I was just in Haiti over the weekend. On my prior trip in 2007, Digicel was everywhere. This time, it was Viola, and relatively little Digicel. My phone connected to Viola. In fact, Digicel wasn't even listed in the list of carriers on my iPhone when I checked. I was actually wondering if they still existed.
What's striking about Haiti (and, from what I'm told from missionary friends, parts of Africa) is how many people have cell phones. People who don't even have electricity in their homes run around with cell phones. When you wander around the mission I was working at, everywhere you go there is a cell phone plugged in and charging. Viola even has charging stations at retailers in Port-au-Prince.