Elton Munguya is the 28-year-old unit director of a moderately large residential and business ISP and network service provider.

His organisation counts many important institutions among its customers: the local bank, a hospital, several primary and secondary schools, the offices of the water administration board, a college and a bunch of cyber cafes.

The network has around 100 major nodes and access points (the exact number varies) and covers a geographical area of approximately 20km2.

Elton’s role includes managing the roll-out of similar installations at other sites around the country. Like many young IT professionals, Munguya is laid-back, likeable and helpful to a fault. He’s just bought his first car and he plans to get married early this year.

Nothing unusual so far, you might think. Except that Elton works for LinkNet Zambia. His ‘patch’ is a small rural village called Macha in the south of the country. The nearest tarmacked road is more than 15km away, and it’s a 45-minute drive to get to the closest town, Choma.

via How Linux is changing lives in Zambia | News | TechRadar.