back to article Price Waterhouse Cooper: Only mobile comms can SAVE HUMANITY

Speaking at the recent Cambridge Wireless conference Price Waterhouse Cooper's Director of Product Management issued a stark warning - unless governments invest massively in mobile telephony we're all going to starve to death. Colin Brereton presented his arguments as a keynote at yesterday's Future of Wireless conference in …

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  1. Mage Silver badge

    Mobile?

    Only as a compliment to real fixed Broadband.

    The guy must know nothing about the economics of Mobile Capacity and Coverage versus fibre everywhere.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Mobile?

      He's from PWC so, of course, he knows nothing about things actually work, just how to charge companies large amounts of money for wasting their time.

      As long as there is added value in any of these services, then there is a business model for the infrastructure as the networks in Africa, India and even Afghanistan demonstrate. In Ghana, the government has even started using the same model for collecting revenue. Governments sometimes have no choice but to take a backseat approach to such developments which risks encouraging monopolies. So, regulation and good governance are probably more important that investment programmes, though shared infrastructure (government-owned or contracted towers and backhaul with operator cells) will probably more common as the technology becomes more ubiquitous and standardised.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Mobile?

        You mean PwC of Satyam fame? The incident that was referred to as "India's Enron" ?

        http://tilt.ft.com/#!posts/2011-04/17516/pwc-satyam-settle-sec-probe-into-indias-enron

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    OMG the four horsemen are saddling up!

    When a senior director of an eminent IT consultancy such as Price Waterhouse Coopers makes this sort of statement there is only one thing left to do ..... 'be afraid very afraid'. Then again ...........

    1. Hieronymus Howerd
      Headmaster

      Re: OMG the four horsemen are saddling up!

      The company is called "PwC". Even back when they used the full name, it was "PricewaterhouseCoopers".

      But granted, the article was wrong too.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    What REALLY Saves Humanity

    Mr Fromm's invention: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Fromm

    It is amazing that these "consultants" don't understand that the only way to handle an exponential runoff (2 adults make 7 kids, kids become adults, goto start) is to fix the exponential runoff itself.

    1. Evil Auditor Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: What REALLY Saves Humanity

      Agreed. And how do you fix the exponential runoff? Educate the women. Make sure they get equal rights. And while doing so, get those lazy patrifuckingarchs to move their lardy arses and do some actual work as well. Problem solved. And maybe mobile technology will help to educate the women...

  4. Yet Another Hierachial Anonynmous Coward

    2012 or 1912?

    Sorry, which century are we in here?

    "wireless telephony is described as "a key enabler of change" whose ability to spread education and information is necessary to drive the jumps in productivity we need." Which is exactly what Marconi, Sarnoff, et al were saying 100 years ago.....

    "Brereton also brought up the example of fishermen using mobiles to check which harbour will offer the best price on the day's catch" Righty-o, and fishermen have not had ship-to-shore radio comms to do that exact thing for the past 75-ish years then? Even in places like Africa? And how does he expect a mobile to work 20 or 30 miles offshore?

    Just confirms my belief that accountants should not be left in charge of technology, or the economy or the country......

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      Re: 2012 or 1912?

      If Kenya had a proper government (as opposed to cleptocrats who can wax lyrically about "freedom"), they would have wired the country by using the huge young labour pool of that country.

      If copper or (some sort of) fiber were too expensive, they would have used directional Wifi antennas. A $20 wifi USB stick plus a 2m parabolic dish can easily do 5km @ 10Mbit/s.

      But that would require a functional state with people who have some ideals in the postal ministry.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: 2012 or 1912?

      > Just confirms my belief that accountants should not be left in charge of technology, or the economy or the country......

      Or in fact accounts. Just thinking of the accounting done by these folks for, Enron, Worldcom, and Greece.

    3. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: 2012 or 1912?

      Actually, most fishing dingies (it will be wrong to call them boats) in the developing world have no radio whatsoever. In fact, they will never have any money to buy a proper ship radio rig until they are decimated by the natural transition to "big boat fishing".

      A mobile phone for them is a lifeline in more than one sense of the word. I would not overestimate its "bargaining ability" though - most boats which are mobile phone dependent are 2-3 man rigs which can operate only within the range of one fishing port so there is very little space for bargaining there.

      While his examples are outright bogus, there is indeed some growth induced by communications infrastructure.

      I would put access to medical aid as one of the much more important factors here. When people live day-to-day between being eaten by a shark and a crocodile you cannot expect them to produce surplus and try to trade it. They have little need for that. It may rain. It may not. I may live. I may die. Whatevvvverrrr... Try to expect such a person to make more to get more. You will get a blank stare.

      Breaking this fatalism by bringing medical aid (which depends on comms) and information is way more important than any "trading benefits".

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mobile will save the world

    Really?

    You sure it won't be the PS4?

    Or the new iPhart?

    Or windmills?

    Or SETI?

    PWC should get real and work out the actual problem with humanity. Mr Torx comes close.

    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: Mobile will save the world

      "PWC should get real and work out the actual problem with humanity."

      They will. If they can find someone prepared to pay them for that.

  6. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Keeping interest rates low not long-term enough for ya, skippy?

    This $EXPLETIVE$ guy assumes that governments take long-term views?

    Hey, we are currently in a DEPRESSION OF SOME MAGNITUDE.

    Guess where it came from? Not investment funds or pension schemes with "short term view"

    I can only conclude that the PwC airhead considers a "long-term view" a permapipe from the taxpayer and inflation-funded government moneyhose into his bank account.

    This is EXACTLY why government should have practically no economic relevance whatsoever. Outfits like these beat their drum, some politicians decide to "invest" in a hare-brained scheme, it ends in tears but the drum-beating outfit and its boardroom members are richer.

    Crowbars. Apply to braincase.

  7. AndrueC Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Never have my cods been so walloped.

    With bells on.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The name of the business

    is "PricewaterhouseCoopers"

    That is all.

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