13 Jun
2021
13 Jun
'21
12:41 p.m.
Amali De Silva - Mitchell <gphlilanthi(a)gmail.com> writes:
There was an ask ( please see very interesting
transcript from precious email on WSIS 2021 Forum session 3 bridging digital divide) to
connect with whatever available tech with speed
rather than wait for the best or newest solution, for covid 19 has made economies
dependent on ICTs.
In the west with land line phones there is 3 way calling ...wonder if there is technology
fix to take this to more callers say 10 callers connecting. The bandwidth to enable zoom
education
is not available to all, but land line phones are more common in rural areas. Also dial
up internet is still an important option and content should be made avaliable for these
technologies.
I grew up through dial up and know it can be used effectively for some purposes ...
Amali De Silva - Mitchell
Connecting with real-time video can requires as little as 300 kilobits
each (per) second (300 kbps or 300 kb/s or 0.3 Mb/s). Real-time audio
requires less (as low as 14 kilobits each second). Text (web pages or
email) and any non-realtime telecommunication (downloads) require
whatever much as you have. It just takes longer if you have less speed.
I remember we could have 600 MB files downloaded in a week with
fax-modems. The phone call would be very costly because the payment was
by the minute. Having that communication would cost about the minimum
wage each month. But it was possible to get the information through.
Current compression rates for audio and video make the information not
very heavy. The current technical problem with communications is
usually because it has to go to another country, even when the
communication is local. More important are the privacy and freedom
issues. Freedom software solutions like Mumble are very high quality
for audio. Nevertheless, the most important is not the quality, but the
freedom. We can make better free software technology if people want to
be free. But we cannot be free with any software. The desire of
freedom is basic, even if it costs more money or effort. But most
people do not want to be free. Most want to be comfortable or look
good, regardless of the freedom they have. Those are the real problems
today.