Tectonic's Alastair Otter today looks at the challenges of deploying wireless technology in Africa, specifically at the future for advanced technologies like WiMAX in rural deployments.

At the African WiMAX and CDMA Forum yesterday, Malcolm Brew of the Ugandan WISP Bushnet tried to put a positive spin on things. "There is no such thing as the digital divide in Africa," he said. "All the technology, like GPRS, is already here. Where there is a divide is in the content that is available to users."

Current wireless technology, Brew says, is sufficient to address Africa's needs -- without waiting for WiMAX. "WiMAX is not the answer yet. It may be soon, but right now it is also not fast enough or able to broadcast far enough," he says.

The point, Brew says, is that it's too soon for a rural provider like Bushnet to take a risk on new technologies. "In the big cities like Johannesburg and Lagos there is enough money to make mistakes; it's easy to swap out units and fix problems," he says. "But in the rural areas you only get one shot at making it work. There isn't enough money to make mistakes. In most cases there just isn't any money at all."