At 06:03  9/22/95 +0100, Dr Eberhard W Lisse wrote:
 
>This donor based top-down approach that the authors seem to
>advocate does not work anywhere. The only way is to connect sites
>that are willing to put in work.  You got to get some academic
>institutions to communicate with each other first, then maybe some
>companies. Then you maybe find APC, GreenNet or SatelLife to pump
>your bytes overseas (eaven if it means using FIDO protcol, which
>is less efficient then batched Taylor UUCP). The net will grow
>sooner or later enough to warrant IP.
 
Dear AFRIK-IT,
 
Once again, I have to correct the skewed image Dr. Lisse has
presented with regards to the technology used by SatelLife.
 
I've attached a brief statement prepared by SatelLife which
should give people a more informed understanding, for more
information please send a message to:
 
[log in to unmask]
 
Regards,
 
Kerry
 
----
 
  Internet Services
 
  In the industrialized world, it's an everyday experience to make a
  voice call, fax transmission, or even join a videoconference - often
  across many time zones, even to the other side of our planet. When
  SatelLife was founded, these commonplace communication experiences
  were impossible for health workers in many developing countries -
  sometimes because of poor local and international telecommunications
  facilities, and sometimes because of exorbitant tariffs. Even with
  today's improved telecommunications networks, communications in
  remote and rural areas is still difficult or impossible, and always
  extremely expensive. SatelLife was created to help these people
  overcome these problems.
 
  Where communications facilities are intermittent, poor quality, or
  expensive, the most efficient way of using them is by data
  communications transmission of digitally encoded messages rather
  than direct "real-time" voice or fax connections. SatelLife
  therefore has put much of its efforts into providing and improving
  access to "store-and-forward" message communications: electronic
  mail, or "email". During the years of SatelLife's development of
  HealthNet, email systems have developed from an academic curiosity
  into the global Internet, and our work on message services to the
  developing world has kept pace, providing world-wide Internet access
  to HealthNet members using technology that matches the needs and
  resources of each member network:
 
     * Conventional Internet technology including routers, permanent
       leased circuits, and UNIX computer systems;
     * Low-cost amateur PC networks (FIDO) using high-speed modems and
       conventional dialed telecommunications, via UNIX gateway hubs;
     * Low-earth-orbit (LEO) store-and-forward amateur packet-radio
       satellite service for remote areas, via UNIX gateway hubs;
     * Surface amateur packet-radio network for regional access via
       UNIX gateways and routers;
     * New directions in HealthNet technology.
 
 
 
---
Kerry Gallivan                                 [log in to unmask]
Network Coordinator                            voice +1 617 868-8522 ex328
SatelLife - 126 Rogers St, Cambridge MA USA 02142      fax +1 617 868-6647
For more info: http://www.healthnet.org      or     [log in to unmask]