A WiLD Idea: Wireless Long-Distance Internet for Rural Poor (2/2)

The networks use antennas aided by relays in places where they cannot be stationed in direct line of sight of one another.WiLDNets can be used for humanitarian or business purposes or both. The hope is that companies will expand connectivity in rural markets.

Rural schools in Ghana and the Philippines are using WiLDNets to connect to the Internet. And in Guinea-Bissau, networks are being used to link community radio stations.

In southern India, a WiLDNet connects eye-care centers in poor villages to an eye hospital in the city of Theni. Villagers receive care from doctors at the hospital through videoconferencing. So far, thirty thousand patients have been examined this way. Eric Brewer says three thousand patients with especially serious vision problems now are able to see much better as a result of their care.

One more thing about Professor Brewer: he is a former billionaire. He and a Berkeley graduate student formed the Internet search company Inktomi in nineteen ninety-six. It became profitable. But the dot-com crash and rising competition from Google shook the company and it was sold to Yahoo in two thousand three.

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在那些无法直接架设天线的地方，网络使用的天线需要继电器的辅助.远程网络无线保真技术可用于人道主义或商业用途，或两者都可。其希望在于公司可以扩大农村市场的连通性。

加纳和菲律宾的农村学校都在使用远程网络无线保真技术连接网络。而且，在几内亚-比绍，网络正被用来连接社区广播站。

在印度南部，这种远程网络无线保真技术网络把贫困乡村眼科保健中心与 Theni市的一个眼科医院连接起来。村民可以用过视频会议从医院医生那获得护理。至目前为止， 30，000名病人已通过这个途径接受检查。Eric Brewer 说， 3，000名患有特别严重视力问题的病人，现在都可以通过医生的这种治疗而好转。

关于Brewer教授的另外一件事是：他曾是一位亿万富翁。在1996年，他和伯克利分校的一名研究生，建立了互联网搜索公司Inktomi,并且该公司已经开始盈利。但是由于网络经济泡沫以及不断增加的来自Google的竞争压力使该公司出现问题，在2003年其被卖给雅虎.