U.N. Wants Poor Nations to Use Wireless Internet

[Marco Trotta]

AT THE U.N.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39715-2003Jun27.html?referrer=email>
U.N. Wants Poor Nations to Use Wireless Internet
Wireless Internet technology may help poor nations leapfrog into the future
if they can get assistance to harness the new technology, U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday.
Friday, June 27, 2003; 8:47 AM



UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Wireless Internet technology may help poor
nations leapfrog into the future if they can get assistance to harness the
new technology, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday.

Wireless Internet access has "a key role to play everywhere, but especially
in developing countries and countries with economies in transition," Annan
said in a message to a U.N. conference on the rapidly growing phenomenon
known as Wi-Fi.

Laptops are rare in the developing world and the money to buy the needed
electronic gear is scarce.

Some 200 people -- representing technology companies, developing nations,
regulators and international agencies -- attended Thursday's conference,
organized by the Boston-based Wireless Internet Institute to help bridge
the digital divide between the information society and the developing world.

Wi-Fi allows users of laptop computers and related gadgets to access the
Internet without electric cords or phone jacks.

A race is on to install access points known as "hotspots" around the world,
each capable of linking properly equipped portable computers in the
vicinity to the Internet.

Pat Gelsinger, chief technology officer for Intel Corp. , the world's
biggest computer chip maker, said Wi-Fi was cost-effective, growing rapidly
around the world and particularly appropriate for developing nations
because it was neither government-regulated nor licensed and was built
using industry-wide and worldwide standards.

In March, Intel introduced technology that it hopes by next year will make
most new laptops sold in the world wireless Internet devices.
'WORLDWIDE LUST FOR TECHNOLOGY'


Gelsinger said Intel was already marketing Wi-Fi in "tens of countries" in
the developing world and would be expanding.

In developing nations including China and India, "we are looking at
something on the order of 40 million to 50 million PCs (personal computers)
and this is the fastest-growing sector of the market," Gelsinger told
Reuters. "This reflects a worldwide lust for technology. We see millions of
people with the potential to become Wi-Fi users."

"It is precisely in places where no infrastructure exists that Wi-Fi can be
particularly effective, helping countries to leapfrog generations of
telecommunications technology and infrastructure and empower their people,"
Annan said.

Annan, who was in Geneva Thursday and could not deliver his remarks in
person, called on governments, regulators, the computer industry and
activists to work together to identify obstacles to Wi-Fi development and
prepare a plan for overcoming them.

Mohsen Khalil, the World Bank director of information and communications
technology, agreed it would take work to get Wi-Fi off the ground in poor
areas.

Regulators might yet be tempted to impose charges or other restrictions on
the technology, and the equipment costs are not insignificant, he said. And
while the technology has shown great promise in tests, "the business model
has yet to be tested in developing countries."