Bill Thompson on the dangers of WiFi hype in the Developing World
Is wi-fi good for developing nations?
Bill Thompson offers an insightful look at WiFi for the developing world, based largely on the recent UN Conference on the subject.
His main claim seems to be that WiFi, as with any other technology is in danger of being over-hyped by companies selling it. there is a real danger that instead of focusing on what the develeoping world needs we are just hyping the latest technology marvel as a panacea for all ills.
Bill's other point, that there seesm to be a US-led push towards massive deregulation of the Spectum, and that that push in itself could cause a lot of problems, is also interesting. Basically there is a movement that claims that total deregulation of the wireless Spectrum would increase competition and innovation, and be long-term beneficial to all parties (except maybe gfovernments) and that regulating spectum in itself is evil and wrong. The problem with the claims is in large part that they are unproven at best.
While I generally am a believer in so-called open Spectrum, and the advantages that come with it, I can understand the point Bill is trying to make, namely that pushing an unproven claim based on libertarian politics may not be the best thing for developing world nations.
