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City man helps bring technology toMacedonia
 
By ELIZABETH LEIS, Staff Writer
 In a country that most people wouldn't be able to pinpoint on a map,one Annapolis man is helping reach an unprecedented goal.Glenn Strachan is the project director for Macedonia Connects. Theinitiative, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Developmentand managed by the Academy for Educational Development, couldlead to the entire country being connected through a wirelessnetwork.
 
"It's a very unique approach to building a network," said Mr.Strachan, who works in the capital of Skopje. "It benefits everyone.There are a whole lot of things you take for granted when you livein the states."
 
As of last September, every school in Macedonia had a computerlab that had high-speed Internet, including rural schools thatpreviously did not have a telephone. USAID paid $3.9 million with$2.5 million of that going to connectivity to the schools.
 
In the last six months, the Internet access rate has grown by 8percent, with 38 percent of that growth coming from children underage 19, Mr. Strachan said. The country has a 38 percentunemployment rate, and Mr. Strachan said part of the goal is toprovide jobs.
 
One of the challenges is that Makedonski Telekomunikacii,formerly a state-owned monopoly, dominated the market untilroughly 18 months ago.
 
"No one could afford it," Mr. Strachan, 49, said.
 
But when the monopoly ended, AED opened up the proposals toconnect the schools. On.Net, a local company, connected theschools and created competition. Since On.Net began theirconnection, MakTel's pricing has dropped.
 
Mike Tetelman, the senior program officer at the AED Center forApplied Technology, said the project shows that if the right
 
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commercial incentives appear, prices will become affordable.
 
"It started to snowball when competition started to enter," he said."The big monopoly had to lower its prices.
 
Geographically, a wireless network covering the country north of Greece is feasible - it stretches over 25,333 square kilometers,making it slightly larger than Vermont. Its border countries includeAlbania, Bulgaria and Serbia.
 
Mr. Tetelman said the vision has become Macedonia "trying toleapfrog."
 
"Little Macedonia is trying to position itself as an IT hub for theBaltic region," he said.
 
Mr. Strachan also believes ethnic tensions can be diffused throughtechnology. Macedonia faced a brief civil war in 2001 and it haslagged in attracting foreign investment and job growth.
 
But there are signs that might be changing. Intel visited recently,and some of the computer animation work on the Oscar-awardwinning movie "The Aviator" was done in Macedonia. Mr.Strachan, who has been to 83 countries, said he adheres to the motto"think globally, act locally." He's worked in Uganda, where hehelped establish a wireless network that connected nine schools.
 
His average day in Macedonia lasts 12 hours, since he works aregular day, then returns in the evening to connect with those on aD.C. time zone. Mr. Tetelman said Mr. Strachan's strengths lie inhis ability to know the ins and outs of the wireless network.
 
"His technical strengths are very good," Mr. Tetelman said.
 
The three-year project ends in October 2007. Mr. Strachan saidwhile he loves his work, there's no place like home.
 
"I miss water," he said. "It's a landlocked country."
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Published April 30, 2006,The Capital , Annapolis, Md.Copyright © 2006 The Capital , Annapolis, Md.
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