William Lester wrote: > Congratulations! Fola Odufuwa has got it exactly right, IMHO. As we look > for what was referred to in some previous posts as 'narrowband' > solutions, the evolution of the mobile phone from a simple audio > communication device to an internet gateway may prove to be the answer.
Yes.....but my concern is with Oke-Ogun, where there aren't any mobile phone networks. Its an area that is normally neglected and at the end of the queue when it comes to development, so there could be a long wait. (To illustrate how far behind it is, we can look at "wireless", and its old meaning of "radio". At Ago-Are and the surrounding area in Oke-Ogun, there is no radio reception at all during the day, although some programmes, such as Voice of America, can be picked up in the evening and the early morning.) When I visited Ago-Are in Oke-Ogun a local teacher pointed up to the sparkling African night sky and asked me to show him once again the satellite we had looked at together on a previous occasion - but I didn't know where to look either. He was thinking back to when Solo field trials were taking place. One evening, as we all sat out under the stars (no electricity), sipping our appropriately named Star beers, Paul, who was conducting the Solo trials, had pointed out the satellite he was using for his email demonstrations. The teacher wanted to see again this visible sign of a communication system that is in reach of Ago-Are. Its been there for years. All that the Oke-Ogun project needs is the resources to link to it. We don't *have* to wait for a mobile phone network to make its way through Oke-Ogun. We only need a computer, and power to drive it, and someone to help us find the money up front so we can make the link to the satellite and check out in practice how best to make it pay its way. Regarding broadband and narrowband and all that, I'm no techie. We were impressed by all the details that Paul and his team had worked out regarding using Solos to set up email bureaux, so I am confident that he had worked out the most cost effective way for us to connect - and I know it was going to be just for email initially. I don't know exactly how he was going to arrange it, or if we'd be able to arrange something as advantageous outside of a Solo one-stop shop solution. I just know we need to communicate into and out of and across Oke-Ogun, and we don't want to wait until someone provides a mobile phone network. Pam McLean CAWD UK Volunteer on behalf of OOCD 2000+ (Oke-Ogun Community Development Agenda 2000 Plus) ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
