USATODAY.com - Wi-Fi could let Iraq skip steps to leap into broadband
By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO � When Iraq is rebuilt, an emerging wireless Internet technology may let it avoid the broadband woes that have plagued the USA for years.
Wi-Fi, a young technology backed by the likes of Intel and Microsoft, sends Web pages and phone calls via radio waves. That avoids the expense of cables, which has partly held up the spread of broadband, or high-speed Internet, service in the USA.
By using Wi-Fi, parts of Iraq could skip the build-out of traditional phone and cable networks altogether. The situation is similar to how cell phone technology enabled huge swaths of the Third World to avoid regular land-line phone systems. Wi-Fi equipment makers such as Cisco Systems, Proxim and Nomadix are talking to government agencies and non-profits about possibilities for Wi-Fi in Iraq. Humanitarian groups evaluating it include Oxfam International and CARE. Wi-Fi could "lower our overhead and increase our capability to do our jobs," says Bob MacPherson, a director with CARE.
By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO � When Iraq is rebuilt, an emerging wireless Internet technology may let it avoid the broadband woes that have plagued the USA for years.
Wi-Fi, a young technology backed by the likes of Intel and Microsoft, sends Web pages and phone calls via radio waves. That avoids the expense of cables, which has partly held up the spread of broadband, or high-speed Internet, service in the USA.
By using Wi-Fi, parts of Iraq could skip the build-out of traditional phone and cable networks altogether. The situation is similar to how cell phone technology enabled huge swaths of the Third World to avoid regular land-line phone systems. Wi-Fi equipment makers such as Cisco Systems, Proxim and Nomadix are talking to government agencies and non-profits about possibilities for Wi-Fi in Iraq. Humanitarian groups evaluating it include Oxfam International and CARE. Wi-Fi could "lower our overhead and increase our capability to do our jobs," says Bob MacPherson, a director with CARE.
Comments