The feasibility of the mobile Internet Cafe
May 1, 2006 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Mobile Monitor, The Unwired Life
For all you long time readers, you would be familiar to how Cellphone9 deals with more than just phones, but also with anything portable and digital and helps you througout your day. Lately, a friend of mine was consulting the feasibility of having a mobile Internet cafe travelling around the provinces / depressed areas to:
a. help educate and provide WWW access to the less fortunate
b. provide access to those who can afford — but can’t have a decent Internet connection because of infrastructure reasons
There are many things to consider in terms of sustainability and cost – gas prices, the ability for the bus to actually travel through narrow dirt roads, maintenance, and a wireless EVDO connection. But for such a development project, it might not be so hard to find sponsors for something like this.
And besides, rural areas don’t have the tech support to fix computers when they bug down. I guess the old saying goes, if you can’t bring Buddha to the mountain, bring the mountain to Buddha.
Sir/madam:
Creating mobile internet cafe is very good project if your target clientele or market are the student from the province which they do not know yet the computer, just like in our province in Zambales, Philippines. Most of the student studying located in mountain it is far from the main of the province they do not know how to use. But the problem in that place is LANline. How they use the internet site? Which most of their assignment they only find in that site.
Hi,
i was very excited that something like this actually exists, but i just need to find out how you setup the P.C’s on the bus. i’m working for an i.t. company in South Africa and i think we need something like this as moost of our schools situated in rural areas do not have these facilities.
i would be very pleased to hear from you.
kind regards
Skhumbuzo Nkosi (S.A.)
Hello Jayvee,
Our foundation is currently looking into the possibility of including a mobile computer laboratory in the training program of one of our projects. We would deeply appreciate your helping us with any information regarding the companies/ persons in the Philippines who can fabricate/ set up such mobile internet cafés and for how much. The complete contact information would also help.
Many thanks!!
hi carole, i’ve heard of this concept before from the telcos. I can see whether my contacts can help you out. I think SMART still does this.
Thank you, Jayvee! We would definitely appreciate your assistance with the contacts. Wish us luck with our project.