Intel plans to cover Africa with wireless net
Africa needs to embrace wireless broadband as a potential solution to the digital divide, the chairman of Intel Craig Barrett has said. “It’s cheaper, easier and more efficient to communicate wirelessly,” he told the BBC News website. Less than 1% of Africans have access to broadband and only 4% use the net. The International Telecommunications Union has predicted that the Intel-backed Wimax system could become the dominant mobile standard in Africa. The continent’s geography and political barriers have made it difficult to roll out wired broadband.
There is a shortage of fibre cable links between African countries and very few states have extensive copper wire networks for ADSL broadband. Despite the improving access to internet technology the cost for wireless technologies remains a barrier to all but a few in Africa, the consultant said. Wimax is one of several competing technologies, which include Wibro and Ultra Mobile Broadband. According to the ITU, Wimax networks are currently being employed in nine countries in Africa. Intel, in conjunction with Microsoft, has also begun the shipment of 150,000 extra cheap laptops to Libya, which are designed for developing countries.
Source: BBC
Comments(61)
haha love the picture
Great initiative, really. I just wonder about the viability of laptops & wireless where a majority of the population don’t have access to power to run these devices … widely available energy infrastructure is the base enabler even before connectivity.
Cool. Internet to the people!
Excuse me, this is stupid.
They don’t even have clean water, and you’re giving them access to something they don’t primary need.
maybe they should worry about clean water and food first, those starving kids on the news don’t look like they are exactly desperate to set up a myspace page.
This is good news and helps people who may not normally have access have the opportunity.
However being cynical, is the reason for this ‘push’ for technology really for human interest/benefit or simply an opportunity for companies to be involved in a market that is currently untapped ??
Most of the developed world is saturated with technology and companies find it harder to compete – so to protect their interests they amalgamate and form larger corporations to protect their interests and monopolising the market share.
If you look at the surveys carried out by the organisation ‘Transparency International’ you can see how corrupt these countries are – so will these benefit anyone but the people in power?
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2007
on the other hand it probably has more to do with rich business peolpe being peeved they can’t get their email while out trying to secure mining rights.
‘150,000 extra cheap laptops’
I wish someone could clarify what ‘extra cheap’ means ?
Are they refurbs ?
Or these ‘wind up’ GREEN models that are wound up for power??
‘God Bless’ Intel & Microsoft
This reminds me of Marie Antoinette famously saying ‘Give them cake!!’
hahaha
man the amount of scammers on ebay is going to go through the roof
They don’t need water. They need porn.
Word!
Let’s introduce ‘em to the warez world! =D
Creating a new society of online money scammers. lol
Haha, nice 1 Kingdom
We gave them clothes and christianity, now let’s get them online, quick! Really, this is stupid.
kewl, now everyone can get brain cancer.
wires ftw.
the bbc article is an interview with Intel Craig Barrett,about his thoughts,ect ect
this is bad journalism from the bbc,like asking the ford car makers president
what would be good for people,selling cars of course.
and bad journalism from the cut and paste made.
furthermore Marie Antoinette famously saying ‘Give them cake!!’
was never heard from her,but the sentence made its way in history,
would be like an example of a powerful person in charge with the brain
of a child..which is not the case here,
Intel Craig Barret,knows his way around,he got himself free publicity again
@ Robespierre
It was meant to be taken as humour!!!
BTW But which African country will benefit from the overall package?
US friendly African countries ??
I wonder if Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugbabe will have anything to comment on this generosity?
Internet for starving people. I didn’t realize that Megabites where so nutricious. I guess that’s why most systems admins look like The Marshmellow Man from Ghostbusters!
Seriously, why not start with the basics like water, food and shelter instead of wireless internet. Mayby we should send all these ‘futurists’ so they can spawn their crazy ideas over there.
great more spam from africa
at least they need the money
Oh isn’t this great. Now we can get EVEN more emails from Nigerian spammers asking for our bank account information.
Great news for Nigerian scammers.
I guess the starving blacks will be browsing the NET at http://www.Marthstewart.com to see what food looks like.
HELLO, this is GOOD NEWS, i SEND you sir many letters now. I am poor child in UGANDA, you sir, blessing in CHrist can help me now. I have bank accountsir, please sendme money.
OOga Booga
if i could just have your sort code please sir to enable the monies…
stupid intel.
Oprah, Jesse & Al must be wonderin how they can get a piece of this pie.
I see the logic here.
laptops > clean water and medicine.
makes perfect sense to me.
:/
let Americans commerce and defense agencies exploit those stupid, backward people. Who gave them advance strains of bacteriological weapons; Ebola… Aids… anyway
Plenty of resources out there with loads of very cheap labour. And if they dont want it, we’ll force it on them anyway
Bill Gates is one evil piece of pork
as everybody knows, 100% of all african have no food and clean water and will die the next 24 hours. the other 0% could use the internet to educate themself.
Hah great picture, sit a dude down and let him figure out how to eat a laptop. Priceless.
Now we wait. The amount of scam emails will arrive in thousands. You’ve been warned !
Giving laptops and wireless to monkeys while I still have to fork out $50 a month? WTF?
i’m African i lived in africa and i had my 1st internet connection in 96.the fact that u don’t see healthy and fed africans on fox news cnn bbc etc don’t mean there isn’t.
what the internet can bring to african childrens? Access to information to knowledge and to culture.
Some of these Africans don’t have food because the various Regime’s steal international aid or simply hold back mass amounts of the lands food. I can imagine what they will do the physical towers and wires in order to keep control of the people.
I don’t see Christians and Intel going into the wild teaching lions and hyenas to play fair and do things differently, just let nature take its course. Animals go extinct for a reason.
Agreed…. prepare for a new wave of 419 scams.
J.
Unfortunately the vast majority of African governments, whether they are Christian or Muslim territories are highly and overly corrupt. The majority of African citizens do not get any help at all from their governments and the average African living in Africa will die before the age of 40 due to one of three causes…. AIDS, Civil war and lack of basic human necessities( food, clean water, shelter). That is why there is such a great migration of African citizens to some parts of Europe, lower Asia and the United States. Internet access for the common African man will not greatly improve his standard of living. The people have to first elect governments that will work for them instead of killing them. These lessons that Europe learned during its growth periods( the Magna Carta, the French & American revolutions and the separation of State and Religion)are historical events whose parallel are only now slightly being seen on the African continents.
CRC Fail said “I don’t see Christians and Intel going into the wild teaching lions and hyenas to play fair and do things differently, just let nature take its course. Animals go extinct for a reason.”
what does this have to do with Africa and the internet? lions and hyenas don’t use the world wide web as far as i know?
@36 LOL
the French & American revolutions …….what…………
american revolution was about paying taxes with no local representation,separation
of state ans religion,,,where on earth are you living,,,god is almighty in america
though I study politics and its easy to be cynical, Africa will take anything it can get. There are clearly benefits to this and no, it will not feed africa, medicate africa, or give baboons blow jobs. However there is an educational and business opportunity here and you would have to be fairly stupid if you were a government and did not accept it.
How about a working agriculture , network of drinkingwater , and working grabage disposal.
BBEfore even thinking of …. wlan ect..
GREAT. JUST GREAT. NOW WE CAN LOOK FORWARD TO A WHOLE BUNCH OF SCAM EMAILS FROM AFRICA NOW. INTEL NEEDS TO COVER AFRICA WITH LUGGAGE SO THOSE PEOPLE CAN MOVE FROM THAT GODFORSAKEN PLACE TO SOMEWHERE THAT FOOD WILL GROW. JESUS, WE HAVE DESERTS IN AMERICA. WE JUST DONT LIVE IN THEM. AT LEAST NOT DENSELY.
ever here that saying about `teaching someone to fish instead of giving them fish”. Bringing internet to Africa could be giving them the empowerment to create jobs, and eventually they can buy their own food.
Internet means even the basic opportunities (i.e. start a call center or an online support company) would now realistic. And the possibilities are endless.
We aren`t talking about remote areas. Sounds like major population centers are with out this basic tool to drive economic opportunity.
Go Intel!
number 6: I think you’re on to something. It’s the ‘phenonmenal’ model of modern business practice, endorsed by a miopic and biased IMF and World Bank, fuelled by corporate greed and a total lack of morals.
@#30
Totally agree…although more spam will be great news for the Ron Paul campaign!
hey people not the whole of africa is like that, i fall under the category that has broadband and i pay my ass off for that shiat(i pay 500 euro a month, for 4mb uncapped work that out
you should be happy for us underprivileged people.
this is a brilliant idea
GO INTEL WOOT WOOT
also not everybody lives in the wild, there are lots of major cities around here,
Africa is an abomination after European colonialism, self-enforced slavery, IMF meddling, and now intel and Microsoft are leading the funeral dirge.
Too much tech news on rlslog these days!
roflol
i think you get sand in your keybord
To get a better understanding of Intel’s motives, here’s an article posted on the BBC website earlier this year:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6723741.stm
The One Laptop Per Child Foundation (not for PROFIT organisation):
http://laptop.org/
Why should we be paying our asses off for computer equipment and an internet connection. There are people right here in America that could use that help. We should be taking care of “our own” first… Don’t know what these companies and the government are thinking when they waste “our” tax money and technology elsewhere, when people are going without right here at home… WTF !!
I don’t think any of you have hit it yet. The real reason for this is the porn. An African addicted to masterbating in front of his laptop is potentially one less out there speading HIV around. Can you say “method to the madness”? Much cheaper than treating AIDS cases.
Who said porn was evil? Here it is, about to be used as the key to the future of the human race. There is a God……..
No one is going to help Africa until Africa helps itself.
They keep destroying themselves and their countries with their constant civil wars. In addition, they have practically no ambition or motivation for progress.
This is 2007, all humans on the planet develop at the same rate, yet many Africans still can not figure out how to grow enough food to keep themselves from starving.
Well on the plus side if he they do figure out it’s for porn and you can’t eat it then they will stop procreating starved children and spreading aids.
Think about it, this is a true win situation. Once they see all the hot women we are used to they will find them to be godesses and will worship them in some mass masterbation ceremony, and decree that all their women are an abomination to the penis.
But this is only the beginning! Africas main export will change from diamonds to lotion due to the new epidemic, spermshotatosis, which is being spread via laptops. Corrupt governments will fall as the people create their own lubes for sell and trade. Imagine that, hundreds of african lubes to choose from, straight from the jungle baby!
Power to the people! Viva le revelotion!
Wow free laptops for Africans
Now they have arrived in the present world…
Finally they can get Calis and Viagra at Great1y Reduced Prices!!!!
—–
For education? Yeah thats great and potentially very good for the poor BUT they need Food N Meds first!
150,000 Laptops even ‘vrry Cheep’ ones would buy a hell of a lot of meds equip and food that would benifit the survival of many villages…..
All this is for, is for Intel to say “Look at us, aint we great humanitariens” im sure once they has distributed the lappys they will employ (screw Blind) 100 Africans at pennies a day to run a call centre for Intel too!!!!
We should give them bikes instead, so they’ll stop stealing mine.
- not 100% of Africa starves.
- African ppl get moneys for creating and administrating the network.
- online education, porn
- they can sell their laptops on eBay
- they can create websites / online services which make profit.
by the way: they don’t have clean water? I think they have the cleanest water, where there is water in Africa. Intel probably doesn’t meant to create wireless in the center of the Sahara.
WOW, GREAT! Now Mufasa can steal people’s hard earned money from his backyard in Nigeria! Can’t Wait!
I guess the need for a laptop surpasses the need for clean water and electricity…or even a mud hut for that matter.
What else can you expect from Intel?… innovation? Don’t make me laugh at this cause it’s not funny seeing in what state these ppl are!