Contents - Connect-World

Developing Regions and Technology
people empowers and supports
change, enhancing the human experience
through new technologies that
bring new hope for improvement in all
aspects of everyones lives.
New technologies, new hope
The benefits of connecting people
through the proliferation of new technologies
throughout emerging markets
are not in question, but delivering
those benefits means lowering the
costs for communications is vital.
The new converged networks, based
on packet technologies, have important
implications for emerging regions.
There, the proliferation of communication
services has often been hampered,
not only by high costs of building
infrastructure, but by the high
costs of services for users on very limited
incomes.
In the past, traditional networks have
relied on separate networks, one to
deliver telephone services, others for
data. Multiple networks have meant
multiples of operating costs; these are
now being greatly reduced by converging
networks to a single infrastructure.
When you have a single network, it is
easy and cost effective to deliver reliable
and secure high-speed broadband
access for voice, data, multimedia or
video, either individually or in combination,
using multiple devices
phones, computers or handheld PDAs.
At the core of these new converged
networks that are driving the communications
revolution around the world,
are packet-based technologies like
Internet Protocol (IP) and voice over
IP (VoIP). Packet technologies convert
any type of information, regardless of
whether it is a voice conversation or
critical health data like an x-ray, into
tiny packets that are sent flying across
the network in the same way email or
web site information is transmitted.
When all information is being transmitted
in the same format — packets —
a single network can integrate all kinds
of services together and make them
available for affordable wireline or
wireless access, regardless of location,
anywhere in the world.
With new IP and VoIP packet technologies,
country boundaries disappear
as telephone calls over the
Internet reduce long-distance charges
to pennies. Converged networks also
mean small ’mom and pop’ businesses
can subscribe to a full range of communication
services that, in the past,
were only affordable to larger corporations.
They can pay one low monthly
fee to have telephone service with
inexpensive long-distance calling, fax,
e-mail and multimedia capabilities
bundled together through one service
provider.
Lower communication costs help these
smaller businesses be competitive if
they are looking to compete within
their own markets or even internationally.
The delivery of reliable and secure
high-speed broadband services
through packetised networks has
benefits well beyond business, fundamentally
changing the way education
and medical services are delivered.
Anyone with a computer and Internet
connection, even in the most remote
regions, now has the opportunity to
enroll as a virtual student at some of
the best education institutions in the
world.
These institutions were previously out
of reach due to the high cost of relocating
to attend on-campus courses.
Multimedia applications allow virtual
students to attend lectures through
videoconference, or collaborate in real
time with other students or professors,
with instant messaging, or whiteboarding,
making changes to projects
together, simultaneously.
For healthcare, new communication
technologies are delivering benefits,
not only in how care is provided, but
also in how and where it is received.
Increasingly, medical resources such
as digitised patient records can be
accessed and shared in real time,
regardless of location, allowing a doctor
in a small village to collaborate
with medical specialists hundreds of
kilometres away.
Specialist care is no longer restricted
only to large cities where demand is
highest, but has its reach extended to
anyone in need.
Moreover, these new applications for
business, education, healthcare and
person services do not depend upon
wireline communications, but can also
be delivered wirelessly by new third
generation (3G) broadband wireless
technologies.
Service providers in most developed
countries around the world are now
implementing 3G networks, making a
new era of business and consumer
services possible.
It is expected that 3G will be implemented
in developing parts of the
world in the near future. 3G wireless
networks are delivering true mobility,
anywhere, anytime, through such services
as Internet surfing on cell phones,
e-mails, video conferencing and financial
services.
While this high level of service might
seem to be out of reach in some emerging
markets where even basic telephone
service is not yet available, a
wireless 3G technology called CDMA
450 - Code Division Multiple Access in
the 450 megahertz spectrum - has
been proving to be ideal. Because 450
megahertz is a low frequency radio
spectrum that allows cost-effective
coverage of a broad area, service to
rural and remote areas is achieved
with fewer base stations.
CDMA 450 can provide basic communication
services, quickly and cost
effectively, in regions where the sparse
population cannot support the high
cost of laying cable for standard wireline
communications.
For fixed wireless service, CDMA 450
only requires a small antenna,
installed on the roof of a house—in
place of expensive cable—to connect
the user with the local radio base stations
in the area. This results in substantial
capital and operational savings
that, in turn, translate to low rates for
users.
The telephone can be used inside the
house like any fixed line cordless
handset, but has, as well, a limited
range outside. CDMA 450 can support
a range of services from simple telephone
capability to broadband data
services such as high-speed access and
multimedia capabilities.
Additionally, areas that already have
very basic first generation wireless
capabilities can quickly and affordably
move to advanced 3G services by simply
adding a card to the network equipment.
Communications on its own cannot
solve important issues such as world
poverty, curing disease or protecting
the environment, but it can and must
play a powerful catalysing role.
This is no pie-in-the-sky, altruistic
vision. Communication technologies
already form part of today’s worldwide
foundation for making progress on
these and many other global, human
condition issues. When people are
connected by new technologies, new
hope cannot help but follow.
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