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Lindsey The Mesh takes LocustWorld WiFi to Bolivia

Few people have installed more WiFi mesh networks than LocustWorld expert Lindsey Annison, so it was entirely reasonable for the IICD International Institute for Communication and Development to ask her to fly out to Bolivia, to advise and consult on rural broadband.

Bolivia, it turns out, is eager for the Internet, and Annison's report from South America is a peach - describing roads which look like rivers, cliffs falling down next to her car, and villages of 4,000 people with just one PC in a data/communications centre.

And of course, satellite communications installed by people who appear to be more concerned with finance than communications. "No multitasking here," she reports from Santa Cruz; "the connections available are so impoverished - this is a city of over a million people - that I can only do one thing at once. Eg, I can upload photos, or I can write the Blog, or I can check my email." And later: "We arrived in Alcala and had a look at their set up... get this, they have a satellite but it only gives 128k and 19.2k up."

The whole expedition is worth spending time
reading... and there are  photos here and more photos here.