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How Mobile Operators Are Caught In the Middle In the Middle East and Africa
First time accepted submitter singinho writes "In times of political turmoil, operators are caught in the middle, between the wishes of the regime and the communications needs of the public. Orange exec Marc Rennard explains how he is forced to risk the lives of his employees." Companies operating with the blessing of any particular regime end up in some interesting predicaments; trying to keep communications open in a place like Mali (one of the places Rennard oversees) must make for some exciting work days for the guys in the field.
America's answering machine:
We would love to come liberate you, but our last 2 liberation actions from evil groups didn't go so well. We miss the days of the grateful Filipinos, Germans, French, Polish, Japanese, Koreans, and Kuwaitis. Please leave a message, and we will get back to you when our population has the stomach for war. BEEP!
sudo make me a sandwich
if he cannot or is unwilling to operate in a country, as per the laws of said country, it is not his privilege to pass judgment. He can opt to pack all his employees and leave, without risking their lives.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Yeah, a real hero that guy. Snakes in suits... a real good read.
You chose to do business where the regulations are lax and the money is easy when times are good. Did you prepare for the obvious and regular times of turmoil?
No? Well that was stupid wasn't it.
Take the good with the bad. As a mobile operator you had the money to get the fuck out and go somewhere else. But you didn't. You stayed because the money is easy.
Oh you stayed because of your rich culture and long history in the region? Well guess what is also part of that culture and history. Violence and political instability. Did you forget about that? Or just ignored it because it was unpleasant?
How about using some of your money and power to help to change the way your country works? No? Didn't do that either huh..
Wanted all the profit for yourself. Well that was stupid too.
Perhaps you'll learn. But somehow i doubt it given the history of these regions.
Meddle with muddled motives? Or, just money? Just like that? Justice this, justice that? Pray, they just summon Mammon.
Watch out or you'll be Caught in the Middle in the Middle.
A similar crisis to when your appetite's pokin' atcha, pokin' atcha.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
I thought companies don't care about anything except profit for their directors... People are just "living assets"....they come and go....
Why does the middle east and Africa have to be such violent places?? Why can*t they just be peaceful!?
So management at US mobile operators should be asking, "How can we become more like Africa?"
Have gnu, will travel.
This is really what these guys are going through!
I'd imagine that these guys are the ones that would see the most value in the sorts of long-duration persistent experiments in putting repeaters, etc. into aerostats, drones, even low-altitude satellites, etc - it would seem that getting the hardware into the stratosphere would provide three huge advantages:
1) on a tactical level it gets your hardware up out of the reach of people, generally. I have to imagine that vandalism, theft, and malicious mischief makes the maintenance of (even something as capital-cheap as) a cell network a bloody challenge (sometimes literally)
2) on a more strategic level, having these things up out of (easy) reach of a government can likewise somewhat allow the carrier to maintain a neutrality as far as traffic that they might otherwise find difficult. Governments have many, many ways that they can put pressure on carriers organizationally and financially, sure, but at least this would remove one lever. (OK, it wouldn't be removed; a government could likely take down a persistent UAV given enough motivation - but launching a ground to air missile is a little more obvious and blatant.)
3) finally, to have the hardware easily-removable from the geographic area.
-Styopa
I work in the 5th poorest country in the world (Guinea-Bissau, West Africa) where Orange is the only internet provider and one of the three telecom providers. Last report I saw, we, the 5th poorest country, have THE most expensive (for what you get) telecom/internet service in the world.
I spent a lot of time researching autocratic leaders (call them Dictators, or just "Dicks" if you like) when writing the Dictator's Handbook (http://www.dictatorshandbook.net/) and the research shows that despite promises to the contrary about the benefits of privatization, clever dictators can still have their way with privately-run services like cellphone companies. It's normal - almost expected - in much of the world for calls to be monitored, intercepted, dropped, and blocked. Everyone knows the SMS outage stories (Belarus, Russia, Egypt, to name just a few) but it goes way beyond that. Most of the commercial gadget conveniences that have made life easier have benefitted autocrats as well, who have new ways to track, monitor, and basically hassle its people. Chapters 4 and 11 of the Handbook cover it in depth. Now we get to smart phones, facebook accounts, linkedin profiles, and all the happy social media stuff: it's all a treasure trove for autocrats. The research dug up anecdotes about Iranians dragged in for questioning and presented with copies of their own email, cellphone call record, and worse.
If you want to weaken dictators, I don't think Twitter is the way to go. Shortwave radio was just as effective, if not more, and it was a hell of a lot harder to block. Cellphone operators are absolutely in a tough spot: required to meet quality-of-service rules while simultaneously kissing the Dictator's Ass. It's not an enviable place to be in, I can assure you.
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
how so?
if the employees lives are at risk, then you just don't do it, who forces you and what is the force being applied?
does somebody have his wife hostage and will shoot her in the head if he doesn't send in the ground crews? his daughter is tied to a diabolical device which will kill her if he doesn't comply?
The better question is; how hard is it to operate in Middle Earth?
Watch out or you'll be Caught in the Middle in the Middle. A similar crisis to when your appetite's pokin' atcha, pokin' atcha.
That's when you get a Snickers! Not sure if it would work that same when you're in the Middle in the Middle...