Remote Mexican Villages Build Own Cell Networks Lucas Laursen - WPSU
go to original March 3, 2015

Last year, Rhizomatica launched the first independent cellphone network in Talea de Castro, Mexico. (rayuelavalpo)

Cellphones are just about everywhere these days. But in remote, rural places the key ingredient – a cell network – is often missing. In Oaxaca, Mexico, a small group of community organizers and computer hackers have gone their own way. Thanks to cheaper technology, they are building and operating their own cell networks, bypassing the big companies altogether.

The sound of a mobile phone is routine in much of the world. But it’s a recent arrival here in Talea de Castro, a mountain town in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

“Right now we’re on the road leading up to Talea,” says Peter Bloom. “We’re maybe like three kilometers away, so we’re actually getting service from well two base stations that Rhizomatica has.

Bloom is the founder of Rhizomatica, a non-profit group in Oaxaca city that has helped 16 remote villages install and operate their own cellphone networks. These are places commercial operators said were too small for them to bother installing a tower.

Mexico’s biggest telecom firm, Telcel, has had a near-monopoly in the country for decades, so it’s slow to expand infrastructure to less profitable small towns.

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