Have listserve followers heard of other similar stories emerging from Latin America? This is very interesting to the project I'm involved in, the Open Empowerment Initiative - Latin America, https://openempowerment.org/ (the website is worth a visit and will be improved over coming weeks). Please email me off list if you've heard of other such anecdotes!
Cheers, Antoine > An interesting article on what happens when large monopolies refuse to > do business in small locales, and the creative ways that people find to > work around them =) > > More info on Rhizomatica: http://rhizomatica.org/ > > --- > Forgotten by telecoms, Mexico town runs cell service > Agence France-Presse, August 30, 2013 > > Left out by telecom firms like the one owned by billionaire Carlos Slim, > a remote Mexican mountain village now runs its own mobile phone network > to communicate with the outside world. > Tucked away in a lush forest in the southern state of Oaxaca, the > indigenous village of Villa Talea de Castro, population 2,500, was not > seen as a profitable market for companies such as Slim's America Movil. > > So the village, under an initiative launched by indigenous groups, civil > organizations and universities, put up a perch-like antenna on a > rooftop, installed radio and computer equipment, and created its own > micro provider called Red Celular de Talea (RCT) this year. > > Now, restaurant manager Ramiro Perez can call his children and receive > food orders on his cellphone at a cheap price in this village dotted by > small homes painted in pink and yellow. > > The local service costs 15 pesos ($1.2) per month 13 times cheaper than > a big firm's basic plan in Mexico City while calls to the United States, > where many of the indigenous Zapoteco resident have migrated, charge a > few pennies per minute. > > "I have two children who live outside the village and I communicate with > them at least two or three times per week," Perez, 60, told AFP. > > Before, Perez had to use telephone booths where he paid up to 10 pesos > ($0.75) per minute. > > The coffee-producing village installed the network with the help of > Rhizomatica, a non-profit with US, European and Mexican experts who aim > to increase access to mobile telecommunications in communities that lack > affordable service. > > In a statement, Rhizomatica, a civil group named Redes and a town > official said they hoped that a telecom reform pushed through Congress > by President Enrique Pena Nieto to open the market will "break the > obstacles" that prevent the development of such community-based projects. > > "Many indigenous communities have shown interest in participating in > this project and we hope that many more can join this scheme," the > statement said. > > The equipment used in Talea, which was provided by California-based > Range Networks, includes a 900mhz radio network and computer software > that routes calls, registers numbers and handles billing. Calls to the > United States are channeled via a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) > provider. > > The village received a two-year-permit from the Federal Communications > Commission to have the right to test the equipment. > > When a cellphone user arrives in the village, a text message > automatically appears saying: "Welcome to the Talea Cellular Network > (RTC) to register, go to the radio with this message." > > There is one catch: phone calls must be limited to a maximum of five > minutes to avoid a saturation of lines. > > Israel Hernandez, a village resident and one of the volunteers who > helped set up the system, said the network uses the radio-electric > spectrum that "telephone (service) providers refuse to use because it is > financially unviable." > > Slim's Telcel is part of his America Movil empire, which controls 70 > percent of Mexico's mobile phone market and has 262 million subscribers > across Latin America but never made it to Talea. > > Alejandro Lopez, a senior town hall official, said the village had > approached big telecom firms but that they had required 10,000 potential > users as well as the construction of a path where an antenna would be > erected and a lengthy power line. > > "Despite some technical problems, because we are in a test period, the > project has been a success" with 600 villagers signing up since the > service opened three months ago, Lopez said. > > Buoyed by the system's success, the village has decided to buy its own > equipment that will allow RCT to run 35 lines simultaneously and plans > to install in the coming weeks. > > The next step, RCT volunteer Hernandez said, is to form cooperatives > with other indigenous villages to request concessions from the Mexican > government in order to resolve "this lack of free frequencies for > cellphone communications in the country's rural communities." > > http://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/forgotten-by-telecoms-mexico-town-runs-cell-service-412236 > > -- > Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. > Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, > change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at > [email protected]. > -- Liberationtech is a public list whose archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at [email protected].
