Cu internetul vine viitorul

Moldtelecom, the telecommunications monopoly in Moldova, has expanded broadband DSL internet access. It is now available in everyВ raion (county) hub, and an offer for the next month and a half includes free connection and equipment. The prices are as follows:

For unlimited 64 kilobits per second (kbps) access: 240 lei, or $18.50, per month.

For unlimited 128 kbps access: 360 lei, or $27.75, per month.

For unlimited 192 kbps access: 480 lei, or $37.00, per month.

By comparison, a dial-up connection is promised at 56 kbps but usually connects at 51 kbps (in the U.S. as well). A usual cable modem or DSL connection in America costs $40 and connects at 256 or 384 kbps.

This connectivity is still expensive, but it's a step in the right direction. I have privately vacillated in the past year about how much of a difference computers and the internet make in a developing country. Lately, I have become bullish again. The internet is the only window to the rest of the world that isn't programmed by a government television company, which is one reason why Val Popovici runs his Romanian-language news blog, as linked to on the right side of this page. It is also, as I am currently reading in Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, a way for individuals and businesses in the developing world to connect with industrialized nations, their businesses and their universities.

From the stories that I read, it seems to me that Ukraine is a country that grasps the importance of technology and is on its way to becoming the next India. They are improving their infrastructure and have a large talent pool of young people with computer skills. Businesses are setting up operations there.

In contrast, Moldova doesn't seem to get it. Why, for example, are computer classes taught only beginning in seventh grade, and then only for one day a week? The average American or Western-European middle schooler has an instant messenger screen name, a blog and a MySpace account; the vast majority of Moldovan university students have never used e-mail. These computer skills, along with the international language of business, English, are absolutely vital for Moldova to move higher in the world. Why are they not receiving these computer skills?

As for Mereseni and other villages, DSL isn't here yet. But considering that dial-up internet in people's homes was a relatively new development in Moldova when I arrived less than a year ago and raionВ hubs already have DSL connectivity now, it seems possible that DSL could travel the six km from our hub of Hincesti to Mereseni over the course of the next year. If that happens while I am still in the country, I will be running around like crazy trying to find a private group of investors to fund a four-computer internet cafe in the village sharing a DSL connection.

Until then, I will have to be satisfied with the beginners' computer lessons that I will be giving teachers at my school after Easter vacation (Orthodox Easter is on the 23rd this year, and a one-week vacation follows). Lesson one? How to turn the computer on and how to use a mouse. It's just like when I taught my grandmothers how to use computers, except they spoke English. It can't be too hard, though. After all, the Romanian word for "click" is lifted directly from English, so I can still say, "Click pe acela," and not get lost in the translation. I figure that if Moldovans can understand the word "click," then using a computer, surfing the internet, and catching up with the rest of the world are just a few more clicks away.