Crumbs
Rich T finds some tasty titbits you might have missed in the week's news
Thursday 23 November 2006, 5:18 PM
Iraq reaps ironic wireless rewards
Despite the political turmoil in the country, there are still those who are delighted with the state of affairs because they can make a quick buck out of all this mess by deploying a quick-fix network so that a small percentage of the country can communicate.
It was not so long ago that I sat with a fellow journalist at a London dinner where one of the country's top analysts wheezed on enthusiastically about how Africa had so much potential ... for the world's mobile telecoms operators to exploit.
"Nevermind the fact that half the continent is starving, they can still have a cellularnetwork," cringed my journalist friend.
The irony rings similarly true for Iraq, which is concentrating on trouble hotspot Basrah as the first install for its network. And those who are exploiting the opportunity seem to be doing rather well.
Despite the fact that a third of Baghdad's telephone exchanges have been destroyed in the conflict, communications have rocketed. Internet subscribers have rapidly expanded in number from 4,500 in early 2003 to 150,000 in the latest figures. And whole businesses are now operating entirely using mobile phones.
But is this progress, or the result of a fortunate few managing to make a quick buck from an unfortunate situation?
PreviousComments on this post
Interesting, it is most likely a bit of both I suspect. On one hand it makes perfect financial sense - the country finally settles down into something resembling a non-chaotic well orchestrated state of central government, and look! no need to develop complicated wired phone networks for the country as the beginnings of good Wireless infrastructure is already in place - Certainly a good chance for a quick buck for Vodafone et al.
However, I suspect it is also quite practical. Provided coverage is reasonable, it is a communications network that is very hard to really knock out. Take down a mast somewhere and the traffic routes elsewhere instead, kind of similar to the original intent (IIRC) of ARPANet back in the days.
I suspect it is probably progress, just with the heavy influencing factor of very large bags of gold at the end!
- Graham
A friend of a friend is in Sierra Leone at the moment - well, she's probably at Freetown Airport now - and she reports that there's not a single working landline in the country (and barely any electricty). But the mobile networks are running.
It's ridiculously easy to set up a mobile network. You can bring in a COW (Cell On Wheels) on the back of a truck or cargo plane, crank up the mast, point a dish at a satellite, fire up a generator and be going in next to no time. Unlike the fixed-line network, you can put it all in a secure compound with no bits outside to be dug up and stolen (copper prices are sky high at the moment, and will stay there), and you can usually make enough from third-party roaming to not bother overly with charging the locals.
You also find that even in highly dangerous areas where there's little or no governmental control and the place is in outright warfare, the mobile network infrastructure is left strictly alone. It's too useful to everyone to knock out.
