Why does everyone want to kill WiFi?

Reading the tech news in South Africa, you get the impression that WiMax is going to very shortly solve all of the country’s broadband issues. Articles like this one give the impression that WiMax will shortly be available in every major city in South Africa. Municipal WiMax enthusiasts argue that this is “no business case [...] [...]

South Africa: Income Spent on Communication

The conventional wisdom in the ICT4D community is that people in developing countries spend a higher percentage of their income on communications than the global average. For South Africa, this notion became is widely accepted (I think) thanks to the Vodafone study on mobile usage, in which Diane Coyle of Enlighenment Economics says: “Expenditure on [...] [...]

Yabba Dabba Do

Meet Rael Lissoos, a economist turned geek entrepreneur. While I have been talking about Village Telcos, Rael has been out building one in Orange Farm, a township about an hour south of Johannesburg. Rael’s company, Dabba.co.za, provides inexpensive voice and data services to residents, businesses, and community centres in Orange Farm. What is remarkable about [...] [...]