[58598] in North American Network Operators' Group
Iraqis work to restore Internet service
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Mon May 26 20:54:18 2003
Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 20:51:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>
To: nanog@merit.edu
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
The nice thing about the Internet is it doesn't require (much) central
planning. All you need are some IP addresses and a willing upstream
connection. The US Government is paying MCI millions for a few cell
phones, while the Iraqis are bringing Internet cafes on-line with
"salvaged" equipment.
http://www.washtimes.com/business/20030525-100937-3873r.htm
"The state company's engineers salvaged one of its satellite transceivers
from the burned-out Ministry of Information and winched it atop a
two-story building in the al-Adel neighborhood in West Baghdad.
After weeks of cobbling and calibrating, the dish was able to send and
receive a satellite signal about a week ago. It's a temporary earth
station, soon to be an Internet cafe.
"We built it from scrap. We had to weld it and build it manually,"
said Mr. Abdullah, a gray-haired man whose fingers fidget over a string of
wooden prayer beads.
With 50 computers squirreled away, and security guards and a diesel
generator at the ready, the Baghdad cafe will offer the public its first
taste of the Internet since early April."
