How small villages in Mexico are gaining access to cellphone and internet service

rnw.nl reported …. Sick of waiting around until the telecoms bring you cellphone reception and a solid Internet connection? Techies believes there’s no need to wait around anymore. With cheap new technology and smart policy hacks, they’re helping remote towns build their own communications networks.

One year ago, Talea de Castro, a small mountain town with around 3000 inhabitants, was just like tens of thousands of other Mexican villages. No cellphone reception, and no telecom company interested in changing that.

Villagers paid steep prices to make calls at local shops that owned the scarce and expensive landlines. When they called loved ones in the US, conversations were kept short: at 1,25$ per minute, such a call could swallow up a big part of their income. Grandmothers with bad knees who needed to deliver a message had no choice but to hike the town’s steep streets.

Talea de Castro had lobbied the telecom giants for change for years, but to no avail. The town was too small and remote to make it profitable to build the required expensive phone towers. Waiting for Carlos Slim was like waiting for Godot. Read Article