Mexico Sees Its First Open-Source Village Cellphone Network [MX]

The communications revolution that swept the globe missed the Zapotec village of Talea de Castro high in the mountains of southern Mexico, where making any sort of call meant trudging to a community telephone line and paying what could be a day's wages for a crackly five-minute conversation. All that has changed, thanks to an ingenious plan that backers hope can bring connections to thousands of other small, isolated villages around the world.

Using simple radio receivers, a laptop and relatively inexpensive Internet technologies, the people of the village have leapfrogged into the 21st century by setting up what amounts to their own mini-telecom company — one capable of handling 11 cellphone calls at a time at a small fraction of what they used to pay.

"This has been a project that has really worked in keeping people in touch. Before, people couldn't talk much because it cost so much," said Keyla Ramirez Cruz, a Talea resident who anchors a program on the community radio station and coordinates the new phone system...