> The argument seems to be that the cost of phone base stations is holding back development in 3rd world countries I'd say not quite: Since most of the first w

> The argument seems to be that the cost of phone base stations is holding back development in 3rd world countries I'd say not quite: Since most of the first world dollars go into cutting edge technology, there is low-hanging fruit in the now-miniaturized, super-inexpensive chips that make it orders of magnitude cheaper/simpler to create reliable 2G infrastructure. So much cheaper that using second hand gear is not a better option at scale. > You can now buy a 2G Chinese base station surprisingly cheaply. I imagine FB engineered its own version of similar technology, but with a product focus that is aligned with the company's goals. > Just the expense of running power to the top of the hill It seems to be designed to be mounted on a building, so I'm guessing it's not intended to replace a massive tower installation, but instead to offer a very cheap and useful, easy-to-install access point that happens to do 2G in addition to (or instead of) wifi. > Just setting up the billing arrangements, etc, will be a huge job. Since the users are the product, I think it will likely be free to the end user, at least at first. > but because of the non-existence of basic infrastructure, eg a national phone network to connect to. I think FB has plans to offer bandwidth, both as a carrot to convince local regulators to license it, and also to incentivize various service providers to help with the rollout. Of course, this could this could be a feint: http://vita.mcafee.cc/PDF/feint.pdf http://vita.mcafee.cc/PDF/feint.pdf