Intel lays plans for global connectivity
Now, here’s the thing. First world country companies are already cooking up ways for interconnecting the world since they got the latest technologies figured out already. That’s well and good but let’s face it–the rest of the world isn’t like South Korea (where the best internet connections are present for your buck, baby).
Improving the number of people worldwide who have access to the Internet has been a stated goal of nations, international bodies, and NGOs for years, but practical attempts to do so have often faced daunting challenges. Hostile terrain, periodic extremes of temperature and weather, limited/intermittent electrical power, and the ever-present danger of being eaten by lions, bears, or giant fire-breathing iguanas are all issues that must be solved, and that’s before the human factors are dealt with. It does no good, after all, to run a copper cable into a town to provide Internet access, only to have someone dig it up next week and sell it for scrap.
He, he…sell it for scrap. That happens here in the Philippines, where a lot of people can’t even get a square meal (moreso three in a day). There are reports where cables, wires (and sometimes even bridge railings!) are stolen and sold to junk shops. They even dig up subterranean fiber optics, thinking it is copper (which fetches a hefty price per kilogram).
But I digress. I hope Intel works this out. Because here, even basic, reliable DSL is hard to come by. The offerings available are usually expensive or unreliable. A local telco even offers a wireless “broadband” which piggybacks on the cellular network. They even erroneously marketed it as wifi before but I guess someone complained that it wasn’t and changed their marketing strategy. Anyway, from what I’ve heard, the service is relatively expensive and slow. Heck, they even have a service (I think it’s HSPDA) that can connect anywhere in the country but it’s no less expensive (or cost effective) than going to a net cafe.
It’s just frustrating that a lot of things here do not have enough value for money. Sigh…
