A century ago, Panama beat out Nicaragua to snag one of the biggest engineering projects of the age: a U.S.-backed canal that would link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, creating a shorter trade route between East and West. In 2014 — the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal’s completion — Nicaragua made plans for its own interoceanic linkage, which would be triple the length of Panama’s. If completed, the project could break Panama’s long- standing monopoly on the shipping trade in the region — but at a severe ecological price.
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DIY Telecoms
IN THE cloud forests of the Sierra de Juárez mountains in southern Mexico, a new kind of tree is springing up: the mobile telephone mast. Unlike most phone masts in the world these are installed, owned and operated by small, mostly indigenous communities. Providing a mobile service in these villages was not profitable enough for big telecoms companies to bother with, unless the locals stumped up $50,000. But improvements in software and the falling price of hardware has made it possible to build a local mobile-phone base station for around $7,500, which non-profit operators and small communities can muster. Continue reading DIY Telecoms
Peer-to-Peer Wireless Is Increasing Competition Worldwide
U.S. regulators have been attempting to deal with the negative affect that a few large Internet providers might have on competition. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, new mobile technologies have been encouraging competition.
Yesterday, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, promoted the net neutrality rules that the FCC recently voted to adopt, and bragged that the U.S. would “continue to be the world leader” in high-tech telecommunications. The FCC’s rules would prevent Internet service providers (ISPs) from prioritizing certain content. Critics say such “fast lanes” would undermine the principles that have led to online innovation (see “FCC Chief Proposes Broader Net Neutrality Rules”). Continue reading Peer-to-Peer Wireless Is Increasing Competition Worldwide
Five Cool Things Revealed at Mobile World Congress
Smart watches got stylish, tablets got new software, and virtual reality goggles wrapped their tentacles around everyone’s faces. Some companies are deconstructing their mobiles into modules. And discussions of the next generation of mobile networks, 5G, centered on how useful it will be for the Internet of Things, not mobile voice or data.
Here is a look at five important tech developments from this week’s conference: Continue reading Five Cool Things Revealed at Mobile World Congress