TOBY SHAPSHAK: MIT blueblood with a huge heart
Vanu Bose found out how to make rural Internet access viable. His first name is now as famous as his surname
The problem with providing rural cellular and Internet access is not the cost of building the network, but the cost of running it, Vanu Bose realised when he set out to solve his own lack-of-broadband problem in Vermont. The brilliant engineer worked out how to make a rural cellular network profitable when its customers spend only US$1 a month. But first he had to re-engineer the telecoms equipment and its business model. And he did this, most recently using the system to provide telecoms and connectivity for Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria this year. Living in the rural part of the US state of Vermont, he watched enviously as fibre and broadband arrived in nearby towns but was still not available in his home, he told me. From this constraint he started working out how to make the cellular base stations smaller, so they would require less energy and therefore be able to use solar power (which would make it an ideal way of providing connectivity in emerging mar...
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