back to article Microsoft sails into Africa with White Spaces and Huawei phones

Microsoft is going large into Africa, pushing White Space networks out to the most rural of locations and getting Huawei to launch an Africa-only handset pushing Windows Phone into the continent. The handset is a rebranded Ascend W1 which was demonstrated last month at CES, with a "4Afrika" logo stuck on the front and a …

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  1. JetSetJim
    Thumb Up

    Cables

    They might want to consider adding a few undersea cables and inter-country fibre links (locals will nick the copper links) into the mix to get the overall bandwidth capacity up so that folks can actually use the devices - but it's still a good start

  2. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Joke

    WP8 phones in Africa

    That's funny.

    1. dogged

      Re: WP8 phones in Africa

      Out of interest, why is it funnier than any other smartphone OS?

      Expense? This is a Huawei Ascend - it'll probably match any price available on handsets running a different smartphone OS. Huawei are good at low cost.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: WP8 phones in Africa

        Battery life and dual SIM are more of a priority in Africa. The price won't match dumbphone OSes.

        1. dogged

          Re: WP8 phones in Africa

          The whitespace availability should negate the double-SIM issue, I suppose.

  3. Great Bu
    Coat

    Give a man a copy of playboy.....

    ....and he will wank for a day.

    Give him an internet and he can wank for the rest of his life....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: Give a man a copy of playboy.....

      You're right about Playboy, but I don't know about the second part....I'm not dead yet.

  4. hplasm
    Meh

    Africa

    Still the dumping ground of the world.

    There must be a lot of whitespace spectrum though, due to a sparseness of TV ?

    Could be an interesting testbed for *good tech like this.

    *For relative values of 'good' as compared to W.... You Know What...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gotta mention Microsoft ...

    That's four mentions of Windows and five mentions of Microsoft on the main page ...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The rich northern hemisphere has been shovelling shit on Africa for hundreds of years, seems some still haven't learned it's a bad thing to do.

  7. The Alpha Klutz

    if you were a rich evil man

    would you honestly not do evil things under a media smokescreen that says you do good things? I mean, if you can afford to buy the media, and he can, you can basically tell people anything and they WILL believe it. Because in order to fit in and not seem crazy, everyone has to believe the same lies in the mass media - that's how it works. You could believe any crazy lie you want and it could be such a lie but if its on TV you will still feel so smart and clever about what you "know" and you will go around getting hurt feelings when people point out different.

  8. Mage Silver badge
    Mushroom

    This is plain evil

    It's all about getting so called "White space" Gadgets in Europe and USA.

    There is no need to use so called "White Space" anywhere. Least of all Africa. This a cynical "back door approach" and nothing about really helping African people or Infrastructure. Practically Colonial exploitation.

    It can be mathematically and physically PROVEN to not work, in the sense it DOES block Terrestrial TV. Doesn't matter how good your spectrum sensing or database is.

    And no, I'm not attacking "windows". But the totally rubbish concept of so called "White space" Radio.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is plain evil

      where can we see the proof?

      1. RyokuMas
        Boffin

        Where's the proof...

        Well said, @AC (15:16)!

        I have no problems with expressions of opinion or personal experience eg: "I think Windows 8 looks crap", "I find Android devices buggy" and so forth.

        But regardless of your opinion of which systems etc. you think are the best is if you are going to make a statement provide evidence to back it up. Don't just bleat on about how "(insert system/device/whatever) has been rejected by the public" or how "(whoever) is a crook" and finish up with "(whatever) fail!" in caps - back your argument up. Spend some time researching - and thinking - before you type.

        Balanced argument and debate is good. Unqualified statements - ignore, challenge or ridicule as suits.

        1. Mage Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: Where's the proof... In the Literature and FCC

          No published proof it works. Just Hypetastic white papers.

          Plenty of fail published.

          Google "Hidden Transmitter Syndrome"

          The "Database" solution (aka "White Space Radio" MkII) actually doesn't work in reality even though the FCC accepted the revised version. The ONLY way it could work is if EVERY TV also is connected to Internet and the Database.

          The 2nd problem is social. It makes "White space" a fail. People will "hack" the database connectivity limits and add power amplifiers and "stronger" aerials for faster speed (if signal is better you can run say 64QAM instead of 16QAM) or more range, thus causing more interference as the spectrum ISN'T empty or it could be licensed.

          Try getting any Mobile operator to accept 3rd party "White Space" Radio on their locally "unused" channel(s) and see how far you can get.

          TV is now a soft touch. Africa even softer (Just offer a "good" deal), Chinese Government gets good deals on resources in Africa where Huawei does "cheap" infrastructure.

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