perks of the poor countries

As far as telecommunications are concerned, there is a story of how the speed of new technology turned the tables on the wealthy nations. With the advent of witricity, we may see the same story unfold in the energy industry.

After the world's wealthy nations spent fortunes on communication infrastructure by wiring up their entire inhabited territory, the rest of the world could only drool in jealousy. A phone in every home was a reality for only the wealthy nations, or so they thought.

Necessity is said to be the mother of invention. Such was the case for a small finish company we all know today as NOKIA. Many homes were scattered across a vast mountainous geography. Wiring up would be ridiculously expensive. So they never did. They never bothered wiring up their entire nation but they got phones in just about every home anyway. That story is one we are all familiar with.

The world followed suit. So now we all have our phones, rich and poor countries alike. Though most Pinoys prefer text, we can make calls to even very remote barangays. It seems that we got better technology for a song. Imagine the cost of wiring up an archipelago. Had we tried, we may still be paying off the foreign debt today. Good thing we never did.

The geniuses at MIT say they have invented wireless electricity. In a brilliant stroke of creativity, they named it WiTricity. Poorer countries that have not been able to bring electricity to all their citizens may soon be able to change this for, well.. maybe just a song. While many of the wealthier nations have already built their cities and suffer the constraints of their infrastructure, the poorer nations that are playing catch up may be able to build their cities with new and advanced infrastructure at what could be a much lower cost.

From a consumer's point of view, I'm looking forward to the time that my phone can charge itself wirelessly without need of prompting. Who knows, maybe even laptops, cars and ipods would be changed to adopt this technology.