Telecom In Egypt

Al-Ahram reports on an Egyptian man who is making a living renting out his mobile phone:

"Not long ago, to access a pay phone the only option was your local grocer. Then pay phones sprouted on the sidewalks and today a generation of young men are taking their mobile phones out on the street offering phone services to the general public. Anwar got this business idea from a shop where he used to work, where the owner offered his customers the use of his mobile phone for 50 piasters a minute. 'I pay a monthly bill where I am charged 25 piasters per minute, so I make 25 piasters profit on every person who uses my mobile,' he added."

Howard Rheingold notes: "Today, it's a cell-phone, but in the not too distant future, it will have significant onboard computing power and a broadband connection: The mobile communications economy, by its nature, is broader than the PC or Internet economies alone."