[info-tech] Fw: Internet takes root in crumbling Albania

[Bashkim Bytyqi]

              **** Information Technology Forum ****


-----Original Message-----
From: UPI / CHRIS HAWKE <C-upi at clari.net>
Newsgroups:
clari.tw.new_media,clari.world.europe.balkans,clari.news.issues.censorship,c
lari.hot.a,biz.clarinet.sample
Date: jeudi 29 avril 1999 0:15
Subject: Internet takes root in crumbling Albania


>
> TIRANA, Albania, April 28 (UPI) -- Down a pot-holed dirt road, past an
>abandoned, crumbling stadium in the heart of Tirana, lies the unfinished
>11-story building that is home to one of Albania's fledgling commercial
>Internet providers.
> The startup is one of a handful of commercial dial-up Internet
>service providers that starting this year have opened up the Net to
>regular citizens of the former hermit nation.
> Albanian universities and non-governmental organizations have had
>access to e-mail and other Internet services since 1997, when the United
>Nations Development Program and the Soros Foundation set up a satellite
>link with an escort of international troops amid gunfire, riots and
>looting.
> Although the chaos of that year sparked by widespread financial fraud
>has settled down, today's entrepreneurs must contend with power outages,
>abysmal phone service, government regulations from a former
>dictatorship, and a crumbling infrastructure.
> Twenty-two-year-old Edmond Kereku, one of Adanet's three co-founders,
>says the power went out four or five times a day when the company
>launched its service in January.
> The three partners bought eight giant boat batteries they say will
>power for two days the three computers that serve their clients.
> They also bought 25 chargers they say can fully power up the
>batteries in one-and-a-half hours.
> Twenty-six-year-old partner Rezart Andoni says the new Internet
>service providers must pay off the technicians from the government-run
>phone company to get service, noting that one bad phone line can put
>over half of their 55 lines out of service.
> After the power headaches over the winter, Adanet moved its office to
>its current building, the headquarters of a private Albanian television
>station, complete with an uninterruptable power source and a backup
>diesel engine.
> However, Andoni won't hazard a guess about when the construction will
>be completed.
> Andoni has worked for the UNDP and the Soros Foundation, the two
>pioneers who developed Albania's Internet links with the rest of the
>world.
> During the anarchy of 1997, 200 donated computers were looted from a
>warehouse, and a bomb detonated outside the Tirana Soros Foundation
>headquarters, damaging cars and shattering windows.
> Kereku was one of the earliest devotees of a cyber cafe set up by the
>Soros Foundation in 1997 that provided two hours a day of free Internet
>access to the public.
> It was shut down a year ago because it became too busy.
> Andoni says his goal is not to make millions, but for the company to
>survive.
> While his entrepreneurial counterparts in the United States become
>wealthy beyond imagination by selling shares of their Internet companies
>in initial public offerings, Andoni does not even know what the term
>means.
> The crumbling road and unfinished building that houses Adanet is
>representative of the poor infrastructure throughout the country.
> Albania is perhaps the poorest country in Europe. Most homes in the
>capital city of Tirana have only a hole in the floor for a toilet, which
>must be flushed out with a pail of water.
> Hot running water is usually provided by electric heaters that take
>30 minutes to warm 10 gallons, and are usually turned off.
> Water service is intermittent throughout the day.
> Roughly 90 percent of Albanian homes do not have phone lines. With
>the recent surge of ethnic Albanian refugees and foreign military and
>humanitarian personnel into the country, it can take an hour of attempts
>before an international call connects.
> Andoni says many foreigners have signed up with Adanet to use
>software that allows them to make international calls at U.S. rates,
>which are roughly a tenth of Albanian prices.
> Adanet has set up high-speed microwave Internet connections
>throughout Tirana, and offers service in the port city of Durres, the
>second largest in the country.
> A satellite link connects Adanet directly to the Internet in New York
>City.
>
>