Re:Building a Mesh Network in Rural Somaliland
by Jtsummers on Thursday January 02, 2014 @08:02PM
(#7003597)
I took that to mean the region (and thus the service providers) and not the individual users.
Re:Building a Mesh Network in Rural Somaliland
by xtrumanx on Thursday January 02, 2014 @10:52PM
(#7004048)
Actually, what he means are the ISPs in Somaliland receive their internet from Djibouti via microwave (at least Somtel does; not quite sure about Telesom).
The ISPs then distribute their internet connection to their customers via DSL, 3G, etc.
Re:Building a Mesh Network in Rural Somaliland
by jlgaddis on Thursday January 02, 2014 @10:14PM
(#7003935)
> Surely the main way people access the internet is through 3G either directly on the phones or on mobile broadband.
I don't know if that's true or not but I'd be willing to bet that most of the cellular towers there (providing 3G/mobile broadband) are themselves using microwave backhauls, quite possibly the same one(s) carrying the "Internet connection".
Re:Building a Mesh Network in Rural Somaliland
by mattlutze on Friday January 03, 2014 @06:45AM
(#7004973)
Yeah, even cellular data needs to come from somewhere. The towers generally connect to the same backbone used for ground line Internet. You wouldn't do satellite internet connections for cellular towers because of the awful latency.
Surely the main way people access the internet is through 3G either directly on the phones or on mobile broadband. When I was in Hargeisa in 2008, 3G connectivity was common, and I would assume that it is still the case (though its possible Abaarso doesn't have a very good mobile connection).