Macedonia - first Wi-Fi country
I came across an ad today which mentioned that Macedonia is the first country in the world to have country-wide Wi-Fi network coverage. I was amazed and I searched a bit and found out that this is indeed the case. The coverage was possible due to a project called "Macedonia Connects" which was funded by the USAID.
Macedonia has a total area of 25,333 square kilometers - similar to the size of my home state Manipur i.e. roughly 0.8% of the size of India or 0.3% of the size of the U.S.
Image Courtesy: David Liuzzo/Wikipedia
Sometime back, I remembered reading something about Philadelphia going to be the first Wi-Fi enabled city in the U.S. But I am not sure if the project has been fully implemented yet. Currently, Corpus Christi, TX seems to be the only U.S. city which has full Wi-Fi access. Please correct me if I am wrong. Also, c|net has a list of municipal broadband network projects in the US.
Related Links:
- Official Macedonian Govt. website
- Wi-Fi Planet article (12/22/2006)
- Financial Times article (3/28/2006)
- BBC article (11/11/2005)
- Macedonia - Wikipedia
Agreed, the govt is taking advantage of this postiion and has implemented 'a computer for every student' policy. Analysts advise the govt has tendered a project to purchase 150,000 computers by first quarter 2007. The country already has a small group of technically savvy people - movie scenes have been produced by Macedonian IT personnel for various Hollywood films (the larget being The Aviator). Good on them, they may compete with India one day (obvsiously to a lesser extent). USA and China have been an instrumental driving force, lending expertise.
I visted the country sometime in 2004 and it was an experience I will never forget. Mother Teresa was born in this country.
I have to admit, it is not a very safe place for tourists.