$100 Laptop - Connecting with the rest of the world

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At this time, one major feature of OSS (open source software) is the ability of members of the community to help each other. In many parts of the third world, I'm not sure where the infrastructure is to allow these new laptops to access the Internet itself. While setting up an ad hoc network between all of the local laptops themselves is an easy enough task for sharing notes and files, that's not going to help them join the outside world without a way to get onto the backbone of the Internet itself. In China, at least, this is becoming less of an issue; they are making large strides in terms of networking the entire country. The concern is other less developed nations, where there isn't nearly as much of an interest in providing reliable access. It's certainly not free to do that; in fact it's quite expensive to create the connection. 

While those are all good questions relating to how society functions, I have one more for our friends at Dell or HP or some of the other big hitters. If they are going to eventually want to get into these large and growing markets, what do they have planned to compete in this area?  Asia in particular is one of the few remaining places where there are untapped reserves for market growth. While I'd hate to take an initiative for education and turn it into an opportunity for business, people who do this for a job would be stupid not to. 

At the low end like this there are not a lot of profits to be made, if any. Similar to any other place, though, there will at some point be expansion to more varied and powerful (and expensive) products as the market matures and potential customers gain more disposable income.  Slapping the Dell logo on a huge number of Negroponte's laptops and practically giving them away to those in need would go a long way towards establishing the brand with new clientele. Another option would be to create a separate design to compete at an even lower price and eat a loss if necessary. If that happens, Nicholas Negroponte deserves an award for driving even cheaper tools for education into the world than his initial, impressive plan.

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