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Reaching Hard to Reach Places
In the last few weeks there has been a lot of media focus given to various pieces of software that permit people to make international calls for nothing. Most of these applications, so far, work via the world wide web, and as we all love the internet, these platforms have become fantastically useful.
This was highlighted in the previous couple of weeks by the purchase of one of the biggest and most widely used applications by one of the biggest companies in the world. Be that as it may, but the cost was amazing, running into several hundred times the yearly turnover (not even profit) of the platform in question.
One of the drawbacks with this kind of system is that it uses the web - yet it's only free because it works on the 'net. No problem,, except there are tens of millions of households who can't get internet in Europe alone, without mentioning the developing world.
Of course, in the developing world, not surprisingly, the web is much harder to get than in Europe. That said, on the other hand, replacements that do the job just as well.
At the top of that list is the mobile phone network. Throughout Africa there are right now several million men and women who are using their mobiles to look after their financial affairs, to learn new languages, and many other applications to boot.
All of this is without the world wide web (yes, it is allegedly possible to live without being on the internet).
Understandably it's almost impossible to offer international calls that are genuinely free, phone providers have to earn a small amount just to pay for the satellites that they're running, however if you want to genuinely speak to whoever, wherever, a telephone is still a better option than the internet.
Not saying that with future satellites that things will stay the same in the future, but for the moment, it's worth remembering that not every single person in the world has a solid internet connection, so the web isn't the nailed on fix to communication issues that we often think it is.
James Hendriks is a free lance technology consultant who specialises in
communications issues in the developing world, he recommends Lebara for pay as you go and international calls
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Tags: General Communications : Communications
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