Exploring Technology Alternatives

Wsj.com ran a front page article on Thursday about entrepreneur Greg Wyler, his company Terracom, and the dream to bring the internet to Rwanda.  

The country is one of the least wired in the world and Wyler expects to provide internet service for $80 per month to citizens.  Interesting as the average Rwandan annual income is $200. As mentioned in an earlier post, the US average annual income is $36,764. The US equivalent would be to spend $9100 a month for broadband.   The citizens are certainly not signing up directly, at least not yet, but internet cafes will certainly be in vogue.  Visiting the terracom site is an interesting experience; the page load times are extremely slow for a telecom company. Really demonstrates the current sad state of the Rwandan pipe.  Wyler has the right idea though; as growing industrial nations continue the unabated search for vanishing commodities, Africa remains poised for an explosion in growth due to the abundance of natural resources. We’re about to witness the Gilded Age of Africa, people who position startups now to provide needed infrastructure to new businesses will be the Vanderbilts of our time.

Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to be impoverished children, at least in Nigeria. Slashdot indicated the other day that Nigeria was lining up to commit to ordering a 1,000,000 units. Sounds good on the surface, but given the level of poverty, I have a hard time believing that the laptops will remain in the right hands for very long – if they ever get there. Nigeria’s average annual income is $300 US. The US average annual income is $36,764. The equivalent of receiving a laptop in Nigeria is like the government sending a US citizen a $12,254 piece of equipment. I don’t believe that the garish colors alone are going to be enough to keep them off ebay. The opportunity for arbitrage is far too great. How about investing instead in technology for their health care system? As of 2003, 5% of their population was infected with AIDS/HIV; One of the lowest percentages in Africa, but still resulting in 2,900,000 people currently living with the disease. Maybe the $1,000,000 should be spent here…. Quanta computers is the real winner here – they’re the company that will be making them.