Bringing the Internet to Somalia.

No government. Minimal infrastructure. The rules in Africa are very, very different In Somalia, the phone companies don_t talk to each other. Each phone company has its own phone lines, and if you want to talk to somebody who uses a different phone company, you have to find a phone on that company_s network. A businessman in Mogadishu might have half a dozen phones on his desk, one from each of the different companies. There are the challenges facing Ed Resor, vice president for international relations for the Somali TelecSucom Group, one of a handful of players working to bring Internet access to Somalia, which along with Eritrea and Congo is the last country in Africa to go online. The political unrest in Somalia more or less destroyed its existing phone network, but new networks are going up. The phone companies are working on instituting a rationalized system for assigning phone numbers. With no government, Somalia has no public utilities or information administration — but there are no regulators to deal with, either. "There_s no stopping the Internet — it_s gonna happen," says Resor. "Because Somalia_s a wide-open competitive market, we_ve decided that we have to do it first." Oddly enough, Resor finds that the current boom in what Resor calls "yuppie technology" in America is a godsend for Africa. "Yuppies want stuff that_s fairly light, wireless and battery-powered, and that makes it very appropriate for Africa." The Somali Telecom Group is a loose consortium consisting of American and Somali investors, four Somali phone companies, and a handful of coordinating players such as Resor. So far, selling Internet access in Somalia isn_t a moneymaking proposition, but the hope is that Internet connections will stimulate growth in more profitable areas. But in a country like Somalia, where medical expertise and resources are scarce and leprosy is still an active threat, making money isn_t necessarily the most important thing. The Internet can educate people about basic hygiene and first aid, and put them in touch with international relief efforts. Resor is also discovering that bleeding-edge technology can work very well with the most ancient of social structures. "What this technology really does is enable families to stay together. And the one thing that keeps people alive in Africa is family."