Support for LAist comes from
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Stay Connected
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen
Podcasts Take Two
Rural Mexicans build DIY cell networks out of scrap
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Jan 19, 2015
Listen 5:30
Rural Mexicans build DIY cell networks out of scrap
In rural Mexico, there are too few people to make it worth while for telecom companies to install cell networks. So, they're doing it on their own.
Cell phone doubles as coyote: phone app helps immigrants cross the border
Cell phone doubles as coyote: phone app helps immigrants cross the border
(
Getty Images
)

In rural Mexico, there are too few people to make it worth while for telecom companies to install cell networks. So, they're doing it on their own.

As connected as we are in Los Angeles, there are plenty of places in the world without things like cellphone reception. Take, for example, rural parts of Oaxaca, Mexico, where not having cell reception is a reality. 

But some entrepreneurs are trying to change that. They're installing their own cell networks in places that have been ignored by telecom companies. Lizzie Wade recently wrote about this for Wired and she joins A Martinez with more from Mexico City.