IN A MANNER of speaking, it could be said that internet signal is also a commodity that could be sold and bought, and it could also have three stages namely production, transmission and distribution.
That is really just a figure of speech, because the production in this case could be the landing of undersea cables and the reception by satellite earth stations.
To some extent, the transmission in this case could be the fixed and wireless networks that deliver the signal all the way to the ends of the last mile. From there, the actual last mile providers would handle the distribution, into residential, commercial and industrial customers inside these premises.
At that point, the signal is connected to devices via fixed and wireless connections.
As it is now, many of the last mile providers are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), but I am hoping that cooperatives could capture a share of this market.
As it is now, cooperatives are already in the distribution business by way of all the electric cooperatives. Using that as a precedent, we could actually wish beyond hoping that other last mile distribution services could be given to the cooperatives, such as water and internet signal.
There is actually no problem about the latter, because I am already laying the groundwork for that.
Actually, cooking gas could still possibly be a list mile distribution service, if only we could put our acts together as we should. As it is now, there are still many sources of natural gas that could be tapped for distribution.
Aside from that, I have not given up on methane gas or biogas as the case may be. Rather than doing this on a grand scale, it may be better for each cooperative to produce their own cooking gas at source, where they live.
Over the years, I have seen many new technologies that were presented to government agencies that did not materialize. In many of those cases, I surmised that the problem really is not technical. Instead, I think that the problem is political, in the sense that political will is needed in order to lay the groundwork for the adoption of new technologies.
In many cases, many government officials would object to the adoption of these technologies, arguing that these are too expensive. I think that that is really the downside of government agencies is that it is very difficult to quantify the value of the services provided. It would be easier to do that in the case of private companies, because everything could be measured in terms of profits or returns of investments.
Instead of measuring in terms of profit, perhaps a social value could be assigned to the social benefits?/PN
