Telephony

Telecommunications in the Favela Santa Marta, Rio de Janeiro. The black cables are electricity, some maybe telephony; the grey ones are cable tv, the blue ones I am not sure but something important I guess. In the Favelas recently the growth of LAN houses has been witnessed, offering IT and internet services in a grey market, tapping into data streams just like the Favelas have always been using water and electricity without paying or paying very little.

This image illustrates the state of telecommunications in Brasil. Somewhere inside those messy cables is the copper wire which carries our ADSL. Because of the rain it stopped working. (I am now in another building where there still is a line). A decent always-on-internet connection costs a fortune here in Rio. If you consider the lower income level this makes it even more expensive. Mobile phone tariffs are punishing, 10 Euros went up in the air just for two or three short calls. So how can you have a knowledge society with such a cost structure?