Andreas Ramos wrote:
>
>
> Yes, so I can call a village in Vietnam. Who do I ask for?
>
> Humor aside: yes, it will soon be possible to call a Vietnamese village.
> Craig McCaw, the cellular phone billionaire, and a guy in Seattle named Bill
> something-the-other have pooled together a few billions and are putting up a
> satellite system for cell phones and internet communications. 50% of the
> world's population (name one!) has not yet placed a phone call. They will
> build solar-powered satellite phone boxes, at about $1000 each. These will
> be placed in the millions of Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. villages, which at
> present have no phone lines at all. It's projected to cost about $3/min.
In Cambodia, right now, the digital cell network is one of the largest
in the world. The reason for this, of course, is the years of civil war
they've endured. which means they don't have a regular phone network,
only cellular. Satellite/cell phones hold the promise of opening up huge
areas of the underdeveloped world that would be far too expensive to
establish a regular phone infrastructure in.
>
> The potential is phenomenal. Web commerce is based on a tripod: browser,
> Visa, and FedEx. A Vietnamese villager (name just one!) can use a browser to
> look at Eddie Bauer's web catalog, order with Visa, and have it delivered by
> FedEx. That's the three legs of the tripod: catalog, payment system, and
> delivery system. Visa already handles 50% of the world's credit card
> transactions. FedEx is secure delivery, anywhere in two days.
>
> This is already common for web users in Japan and Europe; it's cheaper to
> buy from the USA than to buy it in their local countries, and most countries
> don't have the diversity/quality of many American products (don't get on my
> back about this: I lived 15 years in Europe.)
>
> So... fellow websters: we can foresee a glorious future of building commerce
> web sites.
Sure, I already buy most of my books, software, CDs, etc from the States
via the web. And not a few clothes, either. (Mind you, I am really
looking forward to my next shopping trip to NYC later this month! I'll
also be in Boston and SF if anyone feels like quaffing a beer and saying
hi in person).
It goes both ways though. You'll also be able to buy cheap cotton
clothes, very cheap software (if not entirely legal), and many other
products which can be produced much cheaper in countries which have much
lower labour costs and virtually no labour protection laws. Governments
have yet to begin to understand the ramifications of this. For example,
our Government right now is trying to foist a Goods and Services Tax or
Value Added Tax (essentially, a retail sales tax) on us. I know most
countries already have one, but then, this is Australia we're talking
about. The problem is, it's kind of too late to be thinking about such
taxes when we're on the verge of totally open and free trade across the
globe via the internet. What do retail taxes mean then, when I can buy
my products tax-exempt from outside the country?
The promise of internet trade throws open the whole basis of taxation
and tariffs and governments haven't even begun to realise there's going
to be a problem, let alone think about solutions.
Regards,
frank
_________Frank Lee, Information Architect_________
Member: Aust DM Assoc., Market Research Soc. of Aust., Web Consultants
Assoc.,
HTML Writers Guild, Internet Professionals Association. Assoc. Aust.
Marketing Inst.
Interactive Strategist,IBM Australia Ltd & Managing Director, Wired
World Consulting.
http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/franko/
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