Macedonia Becomes World's First 'Wireless' Country

An example of what can be acchieved when government and industry work together to invest in a society.  It can be done.   plk

 

 

Macedonia Becomes World’s First ‘Wireless’ Country
http://www.aed.org/TechnologyApplications/macedoniaconnects.cfm

Summary:

Working with the Government of Macedonia and the private sector, the Academy for Educational Development  ( AED )  has helped transform Macedonia, once the least developed of the Yugoslav republics, into the world's first 'wireless country' of its size or larger.  

 

Through a grant from USAID, the AED project Macedonia Connects worked with a local Internet service provider to connect every one of the country's 460 primary and secondary schools to a wireless network. Now each is outfitted with a computer lab, and the students are connected to the world.

"Our project team had the technical vision of how the network we created for the schools could be expanded to benefit the entire country," said Dennis Foote, vice president and director of the AED Center for Applied Technology.

Microsoft provided valuable software packages and licenses to the government of Macedonia, and Motorola contributed necessary hardware.

Already, private companies are poised to take advantage of the new system."

Another result of the Macedonia Connects project was a steep reduction in the costs associated with Internet access.

According to Glenn Strachan, who directed the project for AED, there is now more competition among Internet service providers in Macedonia, prices have dropped, and "the Internet is accessible to students, teachers, and the general population, rather than just the wealthiest section of society."

For more information, contact Glenn Strachan.

Read more about AED’s work in Technology Applications, or visit the homepage of the AED Center for Applied Technology.

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