I wonder if today is that tomorrow i promised in the last post.
Well, please bear with me.Just that i have been working on a start-up that has taken all my time for a while.You know how demanding consulting could be at times.

Yes,I was trying to give a gist of how the Global System for Mobile Communication-GSM is revolutionising the social, cultural and economic way of life of a community somewhere in Nigeria.

Just about 12 months to my last visit the only way to make telephone calls out of that community was through a Thurayah satelite phone -the cost was and infact, is still 'back breaking '- or travel some kilometres away.

I got to know that about 4 months to my visit the closest substitute was to use a TV antenna to receive a fluctuating GSM signal .Of course that meant that the phone could not be used beyond the lenght of the cable tied around a cell phone's Aeriel.

It was only an SMS away to call the young boy who washed and pressed my dresses.The phone was apparently no luxury to that boy since he had access to his Dad's. I can roughly estimate their family income , maybe about the equivalent of $150 a month.

An interesting occasion was when a mother simply sent an SMS to call her son back home from the football field where he had gone to play.

From the economic angle,jobs where created for a good number of youths who would have ordinarily constituted local nuisance or have travelled to an urban centre probably to do nothing but join the pool of a growing unemployed population, at least they are able to operate call centres.

The most significant about this development was for my cousin who got an SMS from a leading blue chip to be present for an interview. He would have missed that chance of a job he later got,thanks to the GSM.

Though relatively expensive, but put 'side by side' with the benefits it delivers, I think the GSM technology would not be a bad idea to be employed in facilitating some community based grass-root development initiatives.Per harps for education use, or something.