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First Free Wireless Link Between Europe And Africa

Posted by timothy on Wed Jun 23, 2004 09:19 AM
from the one-swallow's-flight dept.
Wireless Networking Communications The Internet Hardware
Paul Bawon writes "A company called PSAND have just installed a wireless link between Tarifa in Spain and Tangiers in Morocco, thus linking the African and European continents together with a free wireless link. The link went across the Straits of Gibraltar with a total distance of 32 km over the sea. Images can be found here and notes from the work can be found here."
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  • Cool... (Score:5, Funny)

    by miroth (611718) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:20AM (#9506816)
    Images of a wireless connection? I gotta see this.
    • The original posting is somewhat inaccurate. It must be pointed out that the link between Europe and Africa was done as a collaborative project involving many people from Europe and Africa, not just Psand, who merely helped. The project is called Transacciones / Fadaiat 2004, an arts / technolgy / social convention dealing with issues surrounding the Straits of Gibraltar, especially immigration. The link was intended to be a short term link to allow participators from both continents to take part, share ide

  • Nice. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jb.hl.com (782137) <joe@joe-baldwin. n e t> on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:21AM (#9506824) Homepage Journal
    The Internet is one thing that could benefit education in poor African countries a great deal, allowing free access to information. This is just one more step in fully linking up Africa.

    • Re:Nice. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by 955301 (209856)
      Except that this is to Morocco, not the "poor African countries". It's more symbolic than anything else. Morocco is about as culturally backwards as any other Islamic dominated country bucking outside influence (not just Western, but all). Women are regarded as cattle, the religious brainwashing begins at 5am via loudspeaker while your sleeping.

      Wake me when there is a Satellite feed directly to the "poor African countries" of which you speak. Which, btw, are ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A VERY BIG DESERT! I hope b

    • Re:Nice. (Score:5, Informative)

      by CvD (94050) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:39AM (#9507026) Homepage Journal
      There is a huge loop of fiber going all the way around Africa that was put there during the dotcom boom by a company called Africa One. Apparently it is mostly dark, because no one can pay to use it:

      See here for a large pic [ucl.ac.uk].

      More info:
      Wired News [wired.com]
      Lucent [lucent.com]
      Some interview [emeagwali.com]

      So this is interesting for wireless sake, but not interesting for the sake of Internet connectivity in Africa. This fiber loop needs to be put to use to enable cheap Internet in Africa. Many Internet connections are still done by satellite, which is expensive and slow.
      • How about cheap food in Africa, before cheap internet? After all, many people in Africa are hungry, few are wondering what geeks think about star trek.
        • How about cheap food in Africa, before cheap internet? After all, many people in Africa are hungry, few are wondering what geeks think about star trek.

          Agreed, but it's better to teach a man how to fish than to give him the fish.
          Getting Africa online will increase its economy in a way you can't imagine. Sending food and money (for food and weapons) to a Third World country hasn't been much of a help over the last couple of decades, it's time to get these countries on their own feet.
          • When you're going to be dead in 3 days from starvation, trickle-down economics means jack. Sure, teaching someone to fish is better than feeding them, but again, if they're on the brink of death, Fishing 101 isn't going to help.

            Getting Africa online won't do anything for the starvation. Opressive governments and corrupt beaurocrats means any aid or money going to Africa is quickly syphoned off into their pockets. Giving them free porn while they do it isn't helping the millions of Africans slowly dying

        • How about changing African governments so they are less corrupt and more business-friendly so people can get good jobs and afford food and Internet?
      • Apparently it is mostly dark, because no one can pay to use it

        Most fiber in a bundle is SUPPOSED to be dark at this point. To lay less than a bunch more than you initially need is incredibly pound-foolish in the long run - and even the short run.

        Nearly all the cost of a fiber run is laying the cable - whether digging a trench around a continent or paying it out on the ocean floor. The incremental cost of adding fibers to the bundle, as a percentage of the cost of laying the bundle, is miniscule.

        The amount of data that can be carried by a single pair of fibers is enormous. So one pair can probably handle all you can sell in the first few years. And even in that one pair, half of it is proably spare - reserved for routing around breaks by slinging the data the other way around the loop. So if you look at the contacted bandwidth versus the fiber's bandwidth, even your one "lit" fiber looks "half-dark".

        But you don't just lay a pair of fibers. You need spares even initially. (Else what do you do if a fiber breaks? Dig/dredge up the run to replace it? Or use the spare fiber.) So now even with one set of spares you've doubled your capacity and not used any of the "extra". 75% "dark" and looking worse.

        But what happens a couple years down the road when your capacity is all contracted out and you need more? If you laid down extra fibers you just light 'em up. If you didn't, you need to DIG ANOTHER TRENCH AROUND THE CONTNENT to lay more.

        So of COURSE you spent a few percent extra, and laid maybe 20 or 50 or 100 times as many fibers as you initially need. You don't EVER want to dig that trench again.

        But do you light 'em up now? Of COURSE not! The incremental cost of LAYING extra fibers is tiny. But the incremental cost of LIGHTING more is nearly the same as lighting the first ones. And every year the equipment gets cheaper and can push more data through the fibers (though not enough more to eliminate the need to light more fibers eventually). The longer you wait to light them, the more bandwidth bang for your buck - so you delay deploying the BOXES as long as possible.

        Thus, if your planners had any savvy, nearly ALL your fibers are dark, and will be for decades.

        But some clueless "analysts" assume that the cost of laying fiber is in direct proportion to the amount of fiber laid. So they look at how much got laid, and how much is currently lit. And they trumpet the "dark fiber" "problem" to the world, convincing investers that the far-seeing planners who laid it have wasted their investors' money. Oh HORRORS!

        In fact, the people (if any) who wasted their investors' money (at least in the fiber laying process) are the ones who spent nearly as much to only lay enough fibers to handle the immediate needs.

        The collapse of the long-haul market was due mainly to the fact that EVERYBODY laid fibers, assuming they could each get a big chunk of the market. Too many suppliers led to a price war that took most of 'em down.

        But the "dark fiber problem" scare stories provided a bit extra push, sucking needed next-stage investment out of some companies that might have made it otherwise and leading to their demise.

        As a result of this scaremongering we'll get more consolidation, and higher prices, than we otherwise would gotten without their panic.
    • free access to information

      TANSTAAFL. Mark my words, this connection will not go unpaid for -- otherwise why do it in the first place?
    • First and foremost, i don't think their wireless connection exactly covered very much of morocco. Africa is the second largest continent in the world. No one has provided North America with free internet yet, I'm not sure how someone would go about transmitting an internet connection for all of africa.
      Besides the uneducated africans aren't the ones with computers. Nor are they the litterate members of teh population. Not to mention the fact that nothing on the internet (except mayb obscure linux ports) is

      • Re:Nice. (Score:3, Informative)

        by pe1rxq (141710)
        No, but its a step closer to a high degree of coverage.
        Also this one is free... Most existing links are incredibly expensive for the the Africans due to the absence of fair peering agrements.

        Jeroen

  • URGENT ASSISTANCE NEEDED (Score:3, Funny)

    by The I Shing (700142) * on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:22AM (#9506839) Journal
    Wonderful! With this new cross-continental wireless connection, those poor, hapless widows of deposed and assassinated heads of the Nigerian government and industry can all the more easily appeal for help in moving their vast sums of wealth into foreign bank accounts!

  • Cool! Like hams working DX. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the_rajah (749499) * on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:22AM (#9506845) Homepage
    This one is not a distance record, but it did span continents and is an interesting article. Here's an article [oreillynet.com] from last year about longer distances, albeit with higher power gear.

    The ham radio record for 2.4 GHz is a lot longer, but it's a great start. Here are some results [ham.se] from Region 1, Europe, including Earth-Moon-Earth.

    Here's the site for the San Bernadino Microwave Society (Hams). [ham-radio.com] They've been doing this sort of thing for ages.

    "Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
    • EME would be a great trick to use if only the damn Moon would stay still! ;)

      Also the ping would be a little high.

      It's a shame they didn't test with data too to see what the baud-rate capability was (or if they did they don't give results).
  • Now if only someone could do the same for Europe and America.
    There's been a lot of hurt, a lot of mean things have been said, but that's nothing a couple of million FREE fragfests couldn't patch up right? Right?

    Maybe via Iceland, the Azores? Newfoundland?

    Before you start, satellite isn't free. I know. I get Sky.
  • ....did this in 1901 between europe and america, and it took them 103 years to do it over 1/1000th the distance?

    Oh, you meant wireless TCP/IP? Why didn't you say so.

    • *Oh, you meant wireless TCP/IP? Why didn't you say so.*

      because this is slashdot! it would be so much more work to say that "first amateur wifi link between africa and europe"(Obviously tcp/ip has been transferred there before this by some wireless links..).
  • of a successful democracy is the free flow of information without government interference. I hope this is a good start for the continent. After all, there is no more free medium for the dissemination of information than the web. After all, why is China so scared of unfiltered access?

  • This is brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CdBee (742846) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:25AM (#9506876)
    Forget all the predictable comments about satellite links being cheaper, the bandwidth being a bit low for a trans-continental link, etc, this proves one thing:

    No matter how repressive a government becomes in its monitoring or control of internet technology, geeks the world over can use this project as a reference work: Don't like your internet strained by official censors? Just beam a link over the border to an open proxy.

    People like us can use this technology to open repressed populations up to communication.

  • Anyone else notice? (Score:3, Funny)

    by marnargulus (776948) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:28AM (#9506910)
    If you look at the picture closely you can see dozens of nerds with laptops boating around.

  • Based on My Experience in Tangiers (Score:3, Funny)

    by nightsweat (604367) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:33AM (#9506970)
    I'm sure the wireless signal was then immediately hustled into a rug and kaftan shop.

  • Coool (Score:2, Interesting)

    by L3on (610722)
    I great example of how regular 802.11 wireless is showing its strengths, however you all realize there are limits. Eventually we will depend on laser transmission of data due to the massive distances it can easily cover. Furthermore, I remember seeing another test when a group of people in the middle of the Moab desert made a record of something around 30 miles with a standard cisco card and a very odd homemade antenna which was made from fine metal mesh screen and wood in a pyramid shape. Does anyone else

  • HAM radio has been doing this for years (Score:5, Interesting)

    by scsirob (246572) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:40AM (#9507039)
    Packet Radio has been providing free digital links across the globe for decades. Nothing new about this..
    • HAM radio does not offer free communications across its bands. The number of things you CAN NOT do is such that a free and open network is immpossible.

      And before folks jump on the defensive of HAMS, go read the actual rules for HAMS, you will discover encryption is verboten as are mnay of the things we use to create open and free networks.

      If you think you can pull off an open and free network across the HAM bands then by all means go for it. In the attempt you will get to see that thte GOV and FCC are not
      • The rules vary between country. Encryption and commercial use is generally not allowed. Discussing politics or religion is frowned upon.
        BBS operators enforce the rules or risk their licenses.

        Before the internet largly killed off packet radio in the UK it was mostly 1200baud with a throughput on a shared half duplex bbs channel of about 20 bytes per second. Some people had faster point to point links which didn't make much difference to the overall experiance due to the slow links between bbs's.

        Discussions

  • In other news... (Score:4, Funny)

    by p4ul13 (560810) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:47AM (#9507106) Homepage
    ... the sales figures for Pringles in Spain and Morocco have sky-rocketed.
  • For us non-metric system Americans

  • Internet + Power = Information (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ElDuderino44137 (660751) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @10:15AM (#9507393)
    Hey There,

    My friend is in the Peace Corps in West Africa.

    I think they need more basic services first.
    Like power.

    I recently sent her a solar powered lantern...
    because she has no good way to read when the sun goes down.
    Previously having used candles.

    Cheers,
    -- The Dude

  • For the love of GOD (Score:3, Interesting)

    by DasBub (139460) <dasbub@dasbub.com> on Wednesday June 23 2004, @10:23AM (#9507505) Homepage
    It's "TANGIER" not "TANGIERS".

    It's an old city, not a mobbed-up casino.

    And yes, I know I'm being extremely anal about this, but if we don't actively correct our mistakes we'll end up watching Survivor reruns and joining Oprah's book club.

    For shame!

  • Mirrors (Score:3, Informative)

    by adelayde (185757) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @11:13AM (#9508232) Homepage
    Article: http://mirror.us.psand.net/fadaiat/
    Photos : http://mirror.us.psand.net/fadaiat/photos/index.ht ml

    Unsuspecting server admin wipes sweat of brow.

  • A collaborative project (Score:4, Informative)

    by spacepleb (609323) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @11:16AM (#9508275)
    It must be pointed out that the link between Europe and Africa was done as a collaborative project involving many people from Europe and Africa, not just Psand, who merely helped. The project is called Transacciones / Fadaiat 2004, an arts / technolgy / social convention dealing with issues surrounding the Straits of Gibraltar, especially immigration. The link was intended to be a short term link to allow participators from both continents to take part, share ideas and create new allegiances. Please also note that the document which goes with it is rough notes written before attempting the link, and was never meant to be fully accurate.
  • Sales of Pringles chips go through the roof for a straight week in Africa... /nothin
  • So now all they need is a wireless link across the Sahara Desert.

    Why is connecting Morocco to Spain such a big deal? Am I missing something?

    • 20m above sea level? - Suprising (Score:4, Interesting)

      by reality-bytes (119275) on Wednesday June 23 2004, @09:42AM (#9507061) Homepage
      I'd just been thinking about the altitude required to 'see-over' the horizon to the other point. Does just 20m above sea level mean the Tangiers antenna must be very high up?

      Now my maths is useless, but it says the Tarifa antenna at Castillo de Guzmán el Bueno is 20m above mean sea level and the Tangiers antenna position is unknown but 32,000m away.

      From that can anyone work out the required height of the Tangiers antenna to have line of sight over the curvature of the Earth?
    • I worked on a nine mile shoot last year going across a shipping channel. Remember that it is not like a laser, there is a cone of coverage going both directions called the fresnel zone. You must maintain at least 60% coverage in this zone to keep communications up ( check out http://www.firstmilewireless.com/calc_fresnel.htm l ) It is quite easy to calculate curvature of the earth, antenna height on both sides, distance between antennas, and finally how big a ship would have to be to block more than 40% o

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