Bike-powered Internet
How do you bring Internet service to remote parts of the world that don't even have electricity? Simple -- just get a bicycle.
That's what the nonprofit group called Inveneo is doing in Uganda, according to a recent article in Infoworld. The group has designed a Linux-based VoIP system powered by a bicycle. For every hour of talk time, users pedal about 15 minutes. The bike is mainly used as back up to solar power, the article said. Calls are routed to the traditional phone network over Wi-Fi connections.
Bike-powered Internet also sounds like a great idea for lazy people like me. It could be the answer to my fitness woes. I can find just about any excuse for avoiding the gym, but if I had to hop on the bike just to make a phone call or send a few emails, I'd have to do it. I'd be working off pounds without even realizing it! I'm sold, sign me up, Inveneo!
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie.
