25468: jrigdon: (reply) Re: 25462: Fwd: Re: 25421: (reply) Math Jay. Explaining more on cellphones. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: jrigdon@researchonline.net

> > what businesses really need is a reliable land phone service  that allows
them to communicate with one another...

While I am no expert on the costs of telephone service, given the existing
conditions in Haiti, the cost of deploying and MAINTAINING land phone
service dwarfs cell phone costs and ultimately we will do better to
encourage and foster that industry that to try to prop up / fix / maintain
the current system.

Cell phone costs are almost entirely related to initial installation of
infrastructure and in the U.S.  we are fast approaching the top of the bell
curve (may have already passed it) and will witness dramatic cuts in cost in
the coming months as competition forces the prices down.  I'm not an old man
but I remember selling IBM PCs with no hard drive and little green screens
for $5000 and a quality printer would cost you another $2 grand.  Today PCs
are throw away items. Such is ALWAYS the case with electronics.  Less than
10 years ago I paid $60,000 for an Internet router, but because I go there
first I haven't had to hold down a "real job" for 8 years now.

I dream of the day when the people of Haiti can tell the world their story.
Many conferences in the Computer / Internet industry have focused on the
leapfrog effect that "late" adoptees have over the early pioneers with each
generation of equipment.  Here in Haiti today we have 8 million "survivors"
who know how to compete, are ready to do so, and just itching for the
opportunty to share their talents in the world marketplace of ideas.

John Rigdon