Prominent Digital Divide Authority Endorses Platforms Wireless' 'ARC' System
2001
Platforms Wireless International Corporation, (OTC: PLFM), the developer of the innovative Airborne Relay Communications "ARC System" for wireless voice and data communications, announced today that Craig Warren Smith, one of the most prominent driving forces behind the current global movement to close the Digital Divide, has endorsed the ARC System as "a long-sought solution for providing Telecommunications and Internet connectivity to the emerging nations of the world."
Mr. Smith is a noted proponent of the use of digital entrepreneurship to replace failed infrastructure development programs heavily subsidized by governments. A Fellow both at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and MIT, he is engaged in the development and implementation of market-based solutions to Digital Divide problems at Harvard University's Center for International Development and MIT's Media Lab. As Senior Consultant to the United Nations, Mr. Smith has also played a significant role in shaping the UN Task Force on Information Technology to be launched later this year by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Mr. Smith is the founder of Digital Partners (www.DigitalDivide.org), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, which engages IT entrepreneurs to help find solutions to world poverty. Many prominent foundations and corporations, including The World Bank, The Ford Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Kellogg Foundation, and Microsoft have supported Mr. Smith's pioneering work on the Digital Divide challenge.
Mr. Smith recently encouraged Her Excellency, Mrs. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the newly appointed President of Indonesia, to consider deploying the ARC System as a solution for building a cost-effective telecommunications and Internet connectivity infrastructure for the Indonesian archipelago.
"The ARC System," Mr. Smith stated, "offers great potential for countries such as Indonesia, where less than four percent of the population have telephone access, and where the geographical challenges of a widespread archipelago have compelled the industry to look beyond conventional approaches to connectivity. Systems such as the ARC System can help emerging nations leapfrog into the ranks of the digitally connected nations, and help them establish their own self-directed path to progress and economic growth.
"The cost of installation for a 16-beam ARC System," Mr. Smith explained, "appears to be in the range of $65 per person. Other approaches to installation can be much more expensive, as much as $1,000 per person for a fixed line in rural areas of the developing world."
"At a time when the IMF is looking to the new Indonesian President to develop the country's resources and reduce national debt," Mr. Smith continued, "the emergence of leading-edge Internet technology offers an enormous opportunity to connect Indonesia to the global digital mainstream, and to help revitalize its national economy.
"Indonesian businesspeople, executives and public officials can use the system as a means to develop cyber cafes, new e-businesses and numerous other e-applications that would promote education and employment opportunities in remote areas."
William C. Martin, Chairman & CEO of Platforms Wireless, stated, "We are pleased and gratified to have the ARC System recognized by someone of Mr. Craig Warren Smith's stature. Mr. Smith's endorsement significantly enhances the global visibility of the ARC System, and our efforts to provide an efficient and cost-effective telecommunications infrastructure to rural areas and the emerging nations of the world."
About Platforms Wireless International Corporation
Platforms Wireless International Corporation, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, is the developer and marketer of the revolutionary wireless communications technology known as the Airborne Relay Communications "ARC" System, and its LTA host aerostructures. The ARC System provides a wide range of wireless telecom services from a platform suspended two to three miles above the earth's surface by a lighter than air vehicle (aerostat). The coverage footprint of a single platform is approximately 38,000 square kilometers. Management believes its significant advances in the field of Airborne wireless communications technology, together with continuing technology improvements and new developments, could provide an efficient, cost-effective, all-broadband, voice and data communications alternative for augmenting, replacing, and supplementing terrestrial wireline and cellular telecommunications infrastructures, as well as high and low-earth orbiting satellites -- at a savings in both cost and deployment time, as compared to conventional systems. Additional information on Platforms Wireless can be found at: www.plfm.net .
