Daily Loaf

The plot thickens.

Reuters are reporting that CPA, the Coalition Provisional Authority, de facto ruler of Iraq, has just invited bids for the construction of a mobile phone network in Iraq. Many subdeveloped countries have skipped the costly construction of landlines and jumped directly to wireless networks. Such a plan would make perfect sense for Iraq, too. Free flow of information apparently has the same positive correlation with democracy than economic development.

I wish I had noticed this before the news broke. US Congressman Darrell Issa (R), of California, has demanded, in March, no less, the Coalition discard bids offering GSM technology, in favour of Qualcomm's CDMA.

Hello!

Every single neighbouring country uses GSM, and while it would be dandy for US companies' workers doing reconstruction in Iraq to be able to bring their own cell phones, after the 2 year contracts expire Iraq would be left with an obsolete network that was inferior to GSM to begin with, soon to be replaced by a newer generation.

What Reuters fail to report, but the intrepid reporters of theBeeb don't, is that the US Military already operates an existing mini-network in Baghdad, left over from the previous era.

Tomorrow, a webortage on a mysterious voyage to the unknown, plus lightning, diluvium, and fire. Stay tuned.