[wsfii-discuss] Economic Sustainability of Community Wireless(sorry had to resend due to incorrect hyperlink)

Fri Apr 6 04:29:55 UTC 2007

--- Assoc of Public ICT Tools Access Prov
<list at apiap.org> wrote:

> Now 70% of the network is owned a by single operator
> & 70% of Handsets are
> supplied by the finnish company Nokia.
> 
> Now won't it be an exciting proposition to help them
> slash the budget by a
> third. ie 3%  ( = to world average )
> 

Actually the technology to provide local GSM
connectivity using local Linux boxes has been around
for a while. The fly in the ointment is government
regulation, reserving spectrum for the exclusive use
of individual telcos (and thereby freezing out any
other model of public access).

As AirJaldi/Wsfii demonstrated, the 'critical mass' of
 tech-related awareness in Indian civil society is
largely absent, and a huge amount of work needs to be
done to bring it to the fore. Without that, it is hard
to see how truly 'people-focused' sustainable models
can be implemented.

Vickram

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