Rural cellular subsidies plan queried

[rpm]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Cellular/3310.html

PLANS to subsidise cellular operators to extend their networks into every rural area may not be money well spent, says the South African Communications Forum.

 

[Paul_S]

Didn't Telkom try this once before?
Government told them to lay lines to underpriviledged areas and a couple of years later they were all disconnected and abandoned due to no profit and non-payment.

How about providing a service to people who are willing to pay for it without a 6 month backlog?

The logic of some people just defies all rational sense.

 

[somnambulist]

That should be great if they deploying 3G networks in rural areas it should help both of the networks expand their 3G coverage throughout S.A & decrease the price of 3G hardware or will the just offer subsidised community chat (voice only) , logically you'd choose the latter due to the majority of these residents only having an income of less than R10 a day

 

[Tns]

the idea sounds good but where are the poor people in question going to get money to pay for this.... allocate money for food smokes booze and now cellphone as well? o yes and dear old eskom, o no wait scrap that last one.