The following post is provided via the Gary Scott newsletter.  Gary lives and conducts business in a small town in Ecuador for a portion of the year, providing great insight into the ways technology is providing opportunities that were once impossible.  It truly is becoming a much small(er) world after all..

Technology Trends

We are traveling with a full house this week on our Import-Export Expedition. Yet wherever we go one great thing is that we are never far from home because of two evolving technologies.

With our tiny 12 inch by 12 inch, three pound plus laptops Merri and I can call my Mom, our kids, our friends or almost anyone, almost anywhere in the world, almost for nothing.

This is a trend that is transforming the utility of many people and places. This shift will create fortunes

We are visiting markets where one can buy organic Andean and Amazonian spices at low prices to pack and resell at high markups as part of our Import Export expedition right now.  We hope you will join us for our next expedition April 23-30.  Learn ways to have your own international business. See http://www.garyascott.com/catalog/expedition.html

We have turned an out-of-the way Blue Ridge Farm and a tiny Andean village into international business centers with this technology. Land that used to be worth a little is now worth a lot.  You too can cash in, if you figure out these dynamics before everyone else does.

VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and Wireless Broadband are changing the world. This knowledge is worth a fortune for more reasons than just the saved telephone tolls.

A few years ago I spoke at a seminar along with Ian Pierson the head futurist for British Telcom. One of the points he made was that he had advised BT (the largest phone company in the world) that within ten years they would not be able to charge for phone calls.

I wondered how this would take place. Now five years later, with VOIP, this is almost the case. Merri and I do not have a long distance carrier anywhere. We place all our calls through VOIP.

VOIP is a big part of the transformation, but wireless broadband is what really opens up this field.

We were lucky at our Blue Ridge farm because the telephone company decided to introduce DSL (telephone line broadband). This is because of the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) Rural Development Telecommunications Programs and Rural Development Broadband Loan and Loan Guarantee Program.

But most of the rural world does not have this type of politics at work. This is where there could be an even greater innovation, Wireless Internet Broadband (WIB).  WIB means that VOIP can be introduced quickly all over the world.

It is the combination of both technologies that give this evolution a one-two punch. WIB is the one of the two!

WIB is the best way to get broadband connectivity in rural and semi rural areas all over the world.

WIB is just like other internet plans, giving incredibly fast speeds and ‘always on’ features equal to cable or ADSL broadband technologies. However, the similarities stop there.

WIB customers connect to the internet wirelessly over the air, rather than through a phone line or cable. This means they get the benefits of broadband internet, plus freedom that only wireless internet can offer.

Years would have passed before wired broadband would have reached out tiny village of Cotacachi. Yet we have it now because all we have is a line-of-site radio tower.   

WIB is an ideal way for people who haven’t been able to get broadband otherwise. This is not satellite communication, but operates through tower transmitters just like cell phones. You get a very small dish pointed at a tower which may be miles away and viola! you have high speed always on internet.

This is great. I can communicate with you, my readers, all over the world through this amazing communications system. This is good enough but here is the #2 punch.

With VOIP my computer also becomes a phone. In North Carolina we use Vonage which provides a small computer box that connects to our computer and the phone.

In Ecuador we use SKYPE.  My computer and a headset is the phone.  We, in each case were allowed to choose a phone number anywhere in the world. We chose a Lakeland, Florida number so our daughter could call us with a local call.  But though she (or whoever) dials a Florida number, the phone (actually the computer) rings here in Ecuador (or wherever we happen to be) as long as we are connected to the internet.

Our calls out are extremely inexpensive. If we are calling someone who is also signed onto Skype, the call is FREE! Otherwise calling the US from Ecuador for example is about 2 cents a minute.

These two innovations change everything but I am not suggesting that you invest in VOIP or WIB businesses.

The big potential is from spotting how these two innovations change people, places and businesses. Look for distortions (as we have here) that are created by the change. For example, land here is cheap because it is viewed as remote.  Yet these technologies have erased the concepts of time and space! I can set up a business here with very low labor and real estate cost, but can serve clients in high cost areas! 

Here is another tip.  There will be two steps that take place in this evolution.  First, we will move from using computers to using interactive TV and the phone.

Too many people are afraid of computers because they are too user unfriendly. But everyone knows how to use the TV and the phone.

Second, we will shift from the typed word to voice. Not everyone can type but most of us can talk. These voice and gesture activated devices will be powerful in assessing your needs, sorting out data available and giving you a short list of useable information. You will no longer go to the net and ask a general question which may result in thousands of possible answers. You’ll be able to ask specific, personal questions and get personal, specific answers.

Look for ways that VOIP and WIB will change things and look for businesses that cash in on these easier to use interfaces.

These are trends that can make you rich.