Community Radio and Cell Phone Networks: Is There a Connection?
Recently our friends from the Palabra Radio Project were in Philadelphia and shared an exciting new project that takes advantage of the connections between cell phones and radios. Palabra is headed by Maka Munoz, a former staff person at Prometheus, who has been doing great work in Central America. An exciting new project of theirs is a community owned cell phone network that offers subscribers unlimited local calls and text messages for $1.20 per month and the community makes a profit! On August 6, Maka, her partner Peter Bloom and more than 30 people came to Prometheus Radio Project to hear more about Rhizomatica and the network in Oaxaca.
As it turns out, cell phones are radios. They act as both a radio transmitter and a radio receiver and in many countries people actually pick up an FM signal on their cell phones. In the city of Oaxaca, Mexico there was no cell phone provider but there was internet access. Maka and Peter Bloom worked with community members, the municipal government, and equipment manufacturers to purchase and create a cell phone network owned by the town of Oaxaca. Within days of launching, 90 people had signed up and the base station had picked up more than 400 cell phones. If you are wondering why so many people had cell phones in a city where there was no service - Peter explained that cell phones are like mini computers - we all rely on cell phones as cameras, date and address books, and in other countries - radios!
Since the project's launch they have been able to add long distance service that is based on purchasing credits from a "voice over IP" (VoIP) provider, meaning that people can now make calls all over the word for a fraction of the cost they would pay to a commercial cell phone provider. This is a proof-of-concept project that will be replicated in several other places in the coming months.
About Palabra Radio Project
Maka and Peter work with and train indigenous women to set up community radio stations and make media in Central America. This training provides women with a marketable skill and the ability to build and maintain a station that broadcasts programs in their native languages.
Prometheus has supported Palabra's work in conjunction with the Channel Foundation for the last few years.
