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Mauritius Aims To Be First Wireless Nation

Posted by Zonk on Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:26 PM
from the coast-to-coast dept.
Wireless Networking Government Hardware IT Politics
hattan writes "This tropical island off the east coast of Africa is best-known for its white-sand beaches, its designer clothing outlets and its spicy curries. But tiny Mauritius is about to stake a new claim to fame. By year's end, or soon afterward, it is expected to become the world's first nation with coast-to-coast wireless Internet." From the article: "An undersea broadband fiber-optic cable, completed three years ago, gives the island fast and reliable phone and Internet links with the rest of Africa and with Europe, India and Malaysia. Many of the country's 1.2 million people--a mix of French, Indian, Chinese and African descendants--are bilingual or trilingual, speaking French, English and either Chinese or Hindi. The country is democratic, peaceful and stable."
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  • The Vatican (Score:5, Funny)

    by ari_j (90255) on Sunday June 19 2005, @11:31PM (#12860308)
    How in the hell can anyone be faster than the Vatican to reach this level? Seriously, that's a nation you could get wireless inside of an afternoon, but maybe wireless networking is a sin like sausage was at one point. I don't get it.
  • gives the island fast and reliable phone and Internet links with the rest of Africa and with Europe, India and Malaysia.

    I don't think it really counts as a reliable phone or internet link if it doesn't extend to South America, Asia, and the US.

  • Ambitious Maritius (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Dancin_Santa (265275) <DancinSanta@gmail.com> on Sunday June 19 2005, @11:37PM (#12860347) Journal
    The African continent is one of those areas that is perpetually in the dark, both literally and figuratively. It appears as a large black mass in the World At Night map, and it has been a long time since it was a source of mankind-advancing knowledge (at least since the Library of Alexander in Egypt was destroyed).

    In addition, its history of being conquered and carved up by Western empires has left it nearly incapable of functioning as a cohesive continent of nationstates. Rather, it languishes in tribal warfare made all the worse by the relatively recent influx of Islam which has torn the northern countries of Chad and Sudan to shreds.

    But separated from the mainland, Maritius is amazing in its ability to remain relatively free of the strife that plagues the rest of the Dark Continent. Catering to foreign tourists who want to get away from the normal tourist hotspots, Maritius has been much more stable and forwardly progressing than its neighbors. It is really no surprise that it would be the first African nation to attempt something as ambitious as this project.

    That it is the first in the world is absolutely amazing.
    • >> It appears as a large black mass in the World At Night map

      Not that Africa hasn't gone through more than its share of troubles, but is it really a bad thing that it appears as a black mass in the World At Night map? What exactly does it prove if the US is a huge fiery glow at night? That we waste energy? It's being picked up by a satellite.

      Just like many countries without landline telephone infrastructures are moving directly to cellular service from nothing at all, perhaps one day African nati

    • Re:Ambitious Maritius (Score:5, Interesting)

      by burts (893432) on Monday June 20 2005, @02:13AM (#12860956)
      Let me tell you a little bit about Mauritius. My background: I am mauritian and currently working towards a master's degree in EE in South Africa and i have /. for breakfast... The internet revolution has started here, in a sense. The price of a decent ADSL(128/64) line has dropped drastically during the last few years (abt USD 29 / month). It used to be *much* higher. Now they are introducing wireless internet soon. Things like video-on-demand, internet tv are all being planned here. These are all very nice but educating the public should also be happening hand in hand - and this area of things sucks big time. I would also like to mention that people have no idea as to what is F/OSS! There are very few businesses that use Linux here. People don't even know about FreeBSD (and i suddenly feel alone). I don't need to mention what is the favourite pirated OS in this place. i am sure you can all guess. But what is really annoying is the politics that exists in the government system. It really makes you think twice before trying to get a job here. Meritocracy is not very prevalent. i could go on and on... Curiously it only seems to happen when the General Elections are close!
  • Is bragging that their "Whole Country" is wireless?

    There are cities that have that much wireless capacity just from their coffee shops! Add in the hotels, and the all-too-prevelant open APs, and you see that that's nothing to brag on.


    • There are cities that have that much wireless capacity just from their coffee shops! Add in the hotels, and the all-too-prevelant open APs, and you see that that's nothing to brag on.

      They also have a tiny tax base. It's impressive in that I don't think we've ever seen a single US city that is 100% wireless. This is a major milestone, regardless of size.
  • I wanna live there! If that's their method of convincing people to move, it worked. Seriously though - just add 10 or 20 bucks to your taxes and you're good to go! Awesome!
    • My high school French teacher was born there, from what I understand the land is overflowing with alcohol, and the people there have an interesting sense of humor. She was ugly but one of the funniest people I have ever met. Best of wishes to you!
  • it's a hell of a lot cheaper to install wireless access points across an island than it is to lay wiring across it.
  • The Principality of Sealand [sealandgov.com] did it first I believe, although Petoria was probably covered by their cordless phone.

    • Sealand is NOT a country (Score:4, Interesting)

      by SuperBanana (662181) on Monday June 20 2005, @12:25AM (#12860561)
      Sealand is not a country; not a single UN member recognizes it, and despite what some quack claims on his ISP homepage, it just plain isn't. It is a small island that the British decided it wasn't worth it to "reclaim" by force.

      If they invaded to kill, they'd slaughter a bunch of idiots. If they invaded "nicely", a couple of British soliders would most likely be killed. Either way, a potenial PR disaster.

      Honestly, the UK just doesn't give a shit about the island- not enough to drop a bomb on the place and blow it to smithereens, or anything else. They could have cut the island off long ago and starved everyone out, but even that wasn't worth it.

      • Re:Sealand is NOT a country (Score:5, Funny)

        by raju1kabir (251972) on Monday June 20 2005, @08:11AM (#12862322) Homepage

        Oh, don't be so harsh on them. It's easily as independent as the country I started in my parents' basement when they wouldn't let me go sleep over at my friend's house one time. Out of historical interest, I will reproduce its Constitution in its entirety here: "No grownups."

        As far as I've been able to tell, that's the same law that governs Sealand.

  • Geeks in Paradise (Score:5, Funny)

    by axonal (732578) on Sunday June 19 2005, @11:48PM (#12860401)
    Excuse me? Excuse me, senor? May I speak to you please? I asked for a mai tai, and they brought me a pina colada, and I said no salt, NO salt on the margarita, but it had salt on it, big grains of salt, floating in the glass...

  • The Land of the Dodo (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    This tropical island ... is best-known for its white-sand beaches, its designer clothing outlets and its spicy curries.

    I thought Mauritius was best-known as the former home of the Dodo. Hopefully their stab at nationwide wireless connectivity won't share a similar fate.

  • a new low for /. (Score:3, Funny)

    by IchBinEinPenguin (589252) on Sunday June 19 2005, @11:55PM (#12860433)
    peaceful? wireless? tropical?

    Every geek in the workd is going to move there.
    We just /.-ed an entire nation

  • From someone who lives there... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20 2005, @01:09AM (#12860702)
    Hi, I live in Mauritius, the home of the extinct dodo.

    Country's bandwidth to the Internet: 128 Mbps

    Here is some information about Internet connectivity with the biggest ISP, Telecom Plus.
    266 US$/month - Business ADSL 1024/128
    147 US$/month - Business ADSL 512/128
    78 US$/month - Business ADSL 128/64

    40 US$/month - Residential ADSL 128/64
    60 US$/month - Residential ADSL 512/128
    266 US$/month - Residential ADSL 1024/128

    Taken from
    http://www.telecomplus.net/adsl_tariffs.htm [telecomplus.net]
    1 US$ ~Rs 28
    VAT is at 15 %

    Oh, forget about getting dedicated >1mbps connections, they cost over 2,400 US$/month last time I checked.

    Also, Mauritius claims to home the most intelligent building in the world, the Ebene Cybertower.

    See, this is a great place to live, all the peace and quiet is here but if you want to move here to enjoy cheap, fast and reliable internet connectivity, its the wrong place to be.

    Information:
    www.mauritiustelecom.com
    www.gov. mu
    alt.mauritius

    Have a nice day.
  • I am Mauritian, living and working in Mauritius right now.

    Mauritius is a small (about 1400 km2) tropical island not very far from Madagascar. Mauritius became independent in 1968, is a republic since 1991 and is, politically, stable with regular democratic elections every 5 years.

    For the last 20 years, the economy was based on sugar cane, tourism and the manufacturing sector (mostly textile). Now, with the ongoing globalisation, Mauritius has to find new avenues for development as we aren't competitive enough in those fields...

    The Government and the private sector have identified some new avenues, IT services and financial services, in addition to the further development of the existing tourism sector.

    As for IT, Government is concentrating on building new schools and giving incentives to the University of Mauritius (where I work as lecturer in Computer Science) to produce a more IT-litterate workforce (whatever that may mean). Mauritius has obtained a $100 million line of credit from India to build what is known here as CyberTowers and CyberCities.

    Of course, this migration towards a service-oriented economy will take some years. The Governement has already announced that the whole country will have to become a duty-free country (yeah :-) like Dubai and Singapore in order to attract more and more tourists.

    As everyone know, by 2008, owing to the World Trade Organisation, all countries including Mauritius will have to compete on the same level (there will be no more prefential agreements between countries nor any guaranteed quotas etc.)

    Small countries like mine need to move quickly or else we will perish.

    Wish us luck :-)
    • Yeah, because its their fault thats happening. Maybe they'll fly right off to Zimbabwe just like you are doing now and pick up a gun and fight.

    • You're absolutely right.

      In fact, let's drop everything we're doing right now and... and what? Take those warlords out of power? Forcibly? Killing how many? Are you suggesting we should go in there and somehow instill democracy? That has, after all, worked so well in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, North Korea, Haiti, Panama, Kosovo, Iran, and India. All of the unrest in the world is clearly proportional to the amount of time we spend on things not directly related to it, and if we actively try to stop it, it

      • That has, after all, worked so well in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, North Korea, Haiti, Panama, Kosovo, Iran, and India.

        As a matter of fact, it has worked in India, and quite well too - since the day they have gotten independence from the British in 1947, at least.

        In a country of 1.2 billion people, majority Hindus, they've a Muslim President, a Sikh Prime Minister and a Catholic Caucasian female ruling party president. In fact, it's worked better than it does for the US, where except for two Presidents, every other one has been a Caucasian Protestant male.

        Not to mention that India has a free market economy which has been growing by leaps and bounds. And it's quite unsettling that you would compare India (which is quite a broad-minded secular democracy with a growing economy) with countries like Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran - you, sir, just proved that you're as ignorant an idiot as the parent poster you were abusing.

        Bah.
        • Erm, India's democracy is democratic all right, but that's about it. The central government is notorious for fucking up everything it touches, and corruption is rife throughout state and local governments. About the only thing this particular democracy has gotten right in the past two decades is to open the economy to the outside world, which, as you say, has contributed to growth. But even in terms of economic growth India's been beaten by East Asia's tigers, particularly China, a party dictatorship. So un
      • Are you suggesting we should go in there and somehow instill democracy?
        That has, after all, worked so well in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, North Korea, Haiti, Panama, Kosovo, Iran, and India.

        Sir, I don't know what you smoke, but I think it's safe to say that you've smoked it all. When was the US ever involved in the administration of India?

    • Most of the larger towns and cities in Africa are quite developed. They're very similar to towns in places like Arizona and Texas. They have running water, they have power, they have sewage systems, they have phones. While they don't have the latest in fiber optic technology, they do have decent Internet subsystems. Wireless technology will allow them to forego the expenses of laying cable, thankfully. One you adapt to the local customs, many of the cities there are very nice places to live.
      • I have no idea what you're talking about. There may be two or three developed cities in Africa. The rest is dirt roads and slum housing.

        Even more "advanced" nations such as South Africa and Botswana post per-capita GDP much lower than most Eastern European countries.

        • Of course not all of Africa is developed, much like not all of China is developed. But if you go to large cities you will find developed communities. Cities like Cairo, Nairobi, Tangiers, Tunis, Algiers, Johannesburg, etc., are all very developed.
          • Been to Cairo and its poverty is astonishing. Outside of the city centre the rest is cheap apartment blocks followed by a large swathes of slum housing. Egypt as a whole is in dire poverty. Naturally pockets of affluence exist everywhere in the world, even in Kigali or Freetown. Overall even the largest African cities are very, very poor and offer only marginally better life quality than African country side which is to say not much. Drinkable water is a problem as is sewage treatment and intermittent power
            • I have. Indeed, and I stand by my word. Have you ever been to major American cities like Detroit, Flint, Chicago, LA, Houston, and Miami? They're very similar to many of the larger African cities. Yep, you do have the better part of the town, and then you have your slums and the shittier parts. You talk about intermittent power delivery, just as much of California has suffered from recently. Look at places like Detroit and LA if you want to talk about very horrific and violent crime. Like I said, their citi

    • Re:How developed is Mauritius? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MSBob (307239) on Sunday June 19 2005, @11:33PM (#12860319)
      Its per-capita GDP (the best indicator of the overall "wealth" of the country) is around $13,000 which is similar to Czech Republic or if you're not familiar with Eastern Europe it's about half of UK's per capita GDP.

      I'm sure its IT industry is limited by its size but not because it's "dirt poor" because it's not.

      • Have you ever been to Prague? It is an extremely developed city. A small GDP relative to a GDP bohemoth such as the UK or the United States does not mean that such cities are underdeveloped or third-world cities. Indeed, many such in Africa are very comparible to most mid-sized American cities like St. Louis or Tampa Bay.
        • Did I say that Czech Republic was undeveloped. I actually come from there and probably know much more about it than you do!

          Mauritius does have a life quality similar to Czech Republic which is to say it's very high. However, Mauritius is nothing like most African countries in terms of its Human Development Index.

          • You were suggesting that the Czech Republic-like GDP of many African nations means that they do not have developed cities. And like we now agree, you were incorrect on that point. Many African cities are very developed and extremely similar to those in Europe and America.
      • A way better indicator is (as another poster mentioned) is the Human Development Index [undp.org]. Per-capita GDP doesn't take into account things like typical standard of living, wealth inequity, etc.

        Another good indicator is the Quality of Life Index [economist.com].

        If you want a simple, raw economic number, MEDIAN income rather than mean income is one of the better indicators of the wealth of a nation's people. Slightly better is median income scaled to purchasing power. Unfortunately I don't have tables for these. =(

    • Re:This is the free market at work. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by andhravodu (698763) on Sunday June 19 2005, @11:39PM (#12860356)
      Ah, the knee jerk reactions start. let's check some facts BTW

      Size of Mauritius : around 1,865 km
      Population : about1.2 Million

      in contrast, size of LA: 1200 square kilometers

      what, you say it's easy to actually network a tiny country. noooo, let's put some spin on it.... oh, BTW, let's put the catch words competition, innovation blah blah. this should get modded insightful
      • What exactly is your point, my good man? Are you suggesting that it would be impossible to convert the entire United States to wireless communication within a day? Of course it would be! That goes without saying.

        But by starting small, at the township and county level, then progress could have been made. But such progress was inhibited by the government, due to lobbying from the large telecoms.
    • from TFA:

      The main problem, he and others say, is that the government holds a substantial share in Mauritius Telecom, the island's only fixed-line telephone operator, as well as one of its Internet providers and the company that controls the submarine fiber-optic cable that provides all of the country's phone and Internet bandwidth.

      Because the government makes so much money from the company and its cable, it has been reluctant to open the market to competitors that might reduce Telecom's profits, even thou

    • You know, I just thought the same thing. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure most other geeks who read the summary (not the article---this is Slashdot for chrissakes) also had a similar thought.

      Considering Mauritius' relatively small size, this begs the question... is it possible to slashdot a country?

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