Beaming broadband across the Congo River

The topic doesn’t really come up so I figured I’d share what I figure is a fairly unique experience — I spent a long time in Congo, specifically Kinshasa, Kisangani, and Goma.

The IMF funded a big telecom there (to improve life in the developed world?) The profits all go to Western Europe. The price for “credit” (data) is so high Congolese spend 3-5x their rent on phone data. Internet cafe speeds are worse than dial up since the whole country is splitting a single transoceanic fiber line. The only good Internet is accessible to those who have connections to use the UN satellite which are very hard to come by.

Things may have changed in the last few years but that was my experience.

For a more amusing take on cross-water Internet, Linux Tech Tips recently posted a video:

> Linus' parents are building a sweet new off-the-grid cabin miles offshore of the mainland here in British Columbia, and while they've figured out power, sewage, and water, they left one thing for me: the internet.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T98VsMe3oo

Meta: how "off-the-grid" is it if you're connected to the Internet? Is "off-the-grid" a binary thing? Or is there some sliding scale?

Who cares? Just use some Ubiquiti point to point devices and be done with it.