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

[Vickram Crishna]

--- 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


		
___________________________________________________________ 
What kind of emailer are you? Find out today - get a free analysis of your email personality. Take the quiz at the Yahoo! Mail Championship. 
http://uk.rd.yahoo.com/evt=44106/*http://mail.yahoo.net/uk