Assurance

["Joe St Sauver" <>]

Nick commented on African bandwidth availability:

#I have family that frequently works in west Africa and know this to be a
#problem in that part of the world. 

The Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) here at UO (www.nsrc.org) 
works a lot with folks in Africa, including helping with AFNOG (the
African Network Operators' Group), and the good news is that from
my POV (I'm not affiliated with the NSRC and don't speak for them),
the situation in Africa is showing continued improvement from a network
point of view. In particular, a LOT of new suboceanic cable capacity
is beginning to come on line, e.g., see for example:

http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2012/05/17/wacs-gets-geeks-into-frenzy

And that's not the only cable servicing that part of the world (e.g.,
see http://www.cablemap.info/ ).

I'm pretty optimistic in general about the future of connectivity in Africa,
although some interior parts of the continent will likely continue to be 
a challenge, and PTT politics always has the potential to derail the
technology.

So bottom line, I guess I would be at least cautiously optimistic that
video may be a viable identity proofing option for that part of the 
world, if not immediately, soon

Regards,

Joe