[liberationtech] Small Mexican village runs own cellular service

[a.nouvet at secdev.ca]

Have listserve followers heard of other similar stories emerging from
Latin America? This is very interesting to the project I'm involved in,
the Open Empowerment Initiative - Latin America,
https://openempowerment.org/ (the website is worth a visit and will be
improved over coming weeks). Please email me off list if you've heard of
other such anecdotes!

Cheers,
Antoine

> An interesting article on what happens when large monopolies refuse to
> do business in small locales, and the creative ways that people find to
> work around them =)
>
> More info on Rhizomatica: http://rhizomatica.org/
>
> ---
> Forgotten by telecoms, Mexico town runs cell service
> Agence France-Presse, August 30, 2013
>
> Left out by telecom firms like the one owned by billionaire Carlos Slim,
> a remote Mexican mountain village now runs its own mobile phone network
> to communicate with the outside world.
> Tucked away in a lush forest in the southern state of Oaxaca, the
> indigenous village of Villa Talea de Castro, population 2,500, was not
> seen as a profitable market for companies such as Slim's America Movil.
>
> So the village, under an initiative launched by indigenous groups, civil
> organizations and universities, put up a perch-like antenna on a
> rooftop, installed radio and computer equipment, and created its own
> micro provider called Red Celular de Talea (RCT) this year.
>
> Now, restaurant manager Ramiro Perez can call his children and receive
> food orders on his cellphone at a cheap price in this village dotted by
> small homes painted in pink and yellow.
>
> The local service costs 15 pesos ($1.2) per month 13 times cheaper than
> a big firm's basic plan in Mexico City while calls to the United States,
> where many of the indigenous Zapoteco resident have migrated, charge a
> few pennies per minute.
>
> "I have two children who live outside the village and I communicate with
> them at least two or three times per week," Perez, 60, told AFP.
>
> Before, Perez had to use telephone booths where he paid up to 10 pesos
> ($0.75) per minute.
>
> The coffee-producing village installed the network with the help of
> Rhizomatica, a non-profit with US, European and Mexican experts who aim
> to increase access to mobile telecommunications in communities that lack
> affordable service.
>
> In a statement, Rhizomatica, a civil group named Redes and a town
> official said they hoped that a telecom reform pushed through Congress
> by President Enrique Pena Nieto to open the market will "break the
> obstacles" that prevent the development of such community-based projects.
>
> "Many indigenous communities have shown interest in participating in
> this project and we hope that many more can join this scheme," the
> statement said.
>
> The equipment used in Talea, which was provided by California-based
> Range Networks, includes a 900mhz radio network and computer software
> that routes calls, registers numbers and handles billing. Calls to the
> United States are channeled via a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)
> provider.
>
> The village received a two-year-permit from the Federal Communications
> Commission to have the right to test the equipment.
>
> When a cellphone user arrives in the village, a text message
> automatically appears saying: "Welcome to the Talea Cellular Network
> (RTC) to register, go to the radio with this message."
>
> There is one catch: phone calls must be limited to a maximum of five
> minutes to avoid a saturation of lines.
>
> Israel Hernandez, a village resident and one of the volunteers who
> helped set up the system, said the network uses the radio-electric
> spectrum that "telephone (service) providers refuse to use because it is
> financially unviable."
>
> Slim's Telcel is part of his America Movil empire, which controls 70
> percent of Mexico's mobile phone market and has 262 million subscribers
> across Latin America but never made it to Talea.
>
> Alejandro Lopez, a senior town hall official, said the village had
> approached big telecom firms but that they had required 10,000 potential
> users as well as the construction of a path where an antenna would be
> erected and a lengthy power line.
>
> "Despite some technical problems, because we are in a test period, the
> project has been a success" with 600 villagers signing up since the
> service opened three months ago, Lopez said.
>
> Buoyed by the system's success, the village has decided to buy its own
> equipment that will allow RCT to run 35 lines simultaneously and plans
> to install in the coming weeks.
>
> The next step, RCT volunteer Hernandez said, is to form cooperatives
> with other indigenous villages to request concessions from the Mexican
> government in order to resolve "this lack of free frequencies for
> cellphone communications in the country's rural communities."
>
> http://gadgets.ndtv.com/telecom/news/forgotten-by-telecoms-mexico-town-runs-cell-service-412236
>
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