| Chapter 1: | A Global, Low-Cost Network Thrives |
“I live in a so-called ‘Third World’ country and I have seen it happening that way. I remember I didn’t get to know a conventional telephone until I was 4 or 6, now my 2-year-old already uses the cell phone and the digital camera of the family like any of his other toys. It just seems natural to me that by the time he is my age, he will have, what for me is now, ‘the home of future.’ 5 years ago, I had neither a digital camera nor a PDA, now I can’t live without them! And I crave for wireless anywhere I go. And more important, it is not only my imagination—I read at least 20 tech sites daily and all news tends to go that way. The only thing that worries me is the parallel trend of, for example, conventional carriers that push to charge for every single thing related to the use of their connections.” —Claudia Cruz, online editor of elPeriodico, based in Guatemala
“I don’t see the economic motivation to deploy globally. Substantial parts of Africa and Asia offer little pull. A good comparison is rural America. Even with push from FCC and PUCs, rural America does not have access like the metroplexes.” —Willis Marti, associate director for networking, Texas A&M University
“All aspects of our lives will be connected electronically so that we can pass personal data (music, voice, video) between devices and locations that are important to us. Kids, parents, teachers, friends, workers, colleagues—all of our personal associations will be available seamlessly and ubiquitously. At the same time, all of the traditional media that we access for information will be just as readily available.” —Michael Gorrell, senior VP and CIO, EBSCO
“The Internet is a dynamic organism which is simultaneously evolving at every nexus, the ‘computer,’ the network protocol, the routers, etc. Complete uniformity and stability are anathema to the evolution of the network. One ‘improvement’ in software at a router can completely disrupt traffic. Fortunately, the systems will become more robust but there will never be a ‘nirvana’ or perfect network.” —William Kearns, assistant professor, University of South Florida