Everyone in Haiti had a cell phone. Everyone. Even the poorest of the poor. They skipped the enormous expense of copper infrastructure.
The world is very different in person. And these pockets of extreme isolation sound like a prime opportunity for a WISP or other disruption. -Ben On May 29, 2018, at 7:16 AM, John R. Levine <jo...@iecc.com> wrote: >> I am sure these third world nations have more important things to spend >> their money on rather than data plans and data devices. Things like food >> and medicine come to mind... > > My goodness, aren't we condescending. Since we're talking about Kenya here, > a few milliseconds of research reminds us that it's a significant > agricultural exporter. Agricultural development there is generally about > better use of existing land. > > You might also want to learn about M-Pesa, the mobile phone payment system > that everybody uses. Stores all have a sign with their M-Pesa number so you > can pay them, and there are kiosks all over Nairobi that will exchange M-Pesa > credit and cash. The 1GB data bundles I mentioned are large ones. You can > get 7MB for a day or 5MB for a week for 5c, which is plenty to check your > messages or look up farm prices. > > People in Africa may be poorer than we are, but they are just as smart as we > are, and they are just as able and interested in technology when it is useful > to them. > > R's, > John
