Translation: The Internet, like telephones, grows more valuable as more join in.
The astonishing achievement, however, is that while there were practically no mobile or Internet connections in 1984, globally there are now 86 mobile telephones, 33 Internet users and 24 broadband subscriptions (fixed and mobile) per every 100 people.
The venture's aim is to allow the cable companies to offer their customers a "quadruple play" of television, telephones, Internet access and wireless phones.
Millions of people were left in the dark, with no power, no telephones, no internet, and no air-conditioning during the worst heat wave in years.
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Even the proposed sale later this year of another 20% of Telkom, the telecoms outfit, should bring in 15 billion-20 billion rand, and may help to make it cheaper to use telephones and the Internet.
Both deals involve rolling out wireless Internet services to some 2 million handheld telephones over the next year.
The IAD supported eight telephones as well as an Internet connection.
Market demand is expected to increase at the end of this year and into next year due to the introduction of phones using the new WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), which allows Internet content to be tailored for display on mobile telephones, pagers and other wireless devices, as well as of devices which incorporate EPOC, the operating system for wireless devices from the Symbian joint venture.
Telecoms transitioning from the dying business of landline telephones into the technologically vulnerable and competitive businesses of Internet and television services are great examples.
And just a few years hence, wireless interactive access devices, such as smart mobile telephones and handheld computers, are expected to offer easy Internet access on the move.
Unlike fat and happy middle-class America, the developing world has a lot of unmet needs and pent-up demands--not for faster Internet connections and SUVs (yet), but for simple stuff such as telephones and cosmetics.
Having conceded that the Internet was largely an American venture, the older continent now finds that its peoples' enthusiasm for blathering on mobile telephones is creating a lead in what could become the next exciting area of change.
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