Solar Powered Cell Phone Relay Stations - Essay Example

Questions Solar powered cell phone relay stations are likely to be useful for knowledge workers, especially in poor countries like Chad, because they enable fast and efficient communication. Hence, they may be helpful to knowledge workers in gaining access to the information they need, communicating with their team members on the status of projects and also in transmitting information. In developing countries, this may be a better option as compared to unreliable and expensive electricity grids. Using solar powered cell phone relay stations is especially appropriate and likely to be useful in a less developed country such as Chad where access to electrical grids may not be feasible due to geographical problems and in remote locations where establishing electric connections may be expensive.(www.electricityforum.com). It is also expensive to develop such grids and Chad is a poor country where substantial expenses on these developments may not be possible. But sunlight is a commodity available in plenty in this country, and this can be harnessed to generate solar power to operate cell phones and enhance communications. Such relay stations are already in use in the U.K., where grids connect PV systems are integrated into office buildings and connected to the local solar electricity network. They are used in monitoring stations, radio repeater stations, telephone kiosks and for street lighting. Solar powered relay stations were installed by the Israeli Government in 2005, all along Israeli highway no: 2 to provide electrical power for cellular phones using the energy harnessed from the sun and assimilated into the microwave relay stations. 2. Voice over Internet protocol helps in enabling voice communications through the use of IP networks such as the Internet. It offers the facility of telephony services, i.e, the facility of making and receiving calls from regular telephone lines using a computer (Wallingford, 2005). The only requirement is the availability of a broadband connection which facilitates good sound transmission quality and in the case of telephony services such as Skype, even allows chatting and calling applications in computers with firewalls that normally break such applications. As a result, it brings about a substantial reduction in the cost of making telephone calls. VoIP systems also allow for a converge of voice and data networks. The VoIP facility is useful to a knowledge worker because it enables fast and easy communication lines to be established to and from any part of the world. A knowledge worker in a remote location will be able to use his or her computer as the medium to communicate with team members and co-workers in other parts of the globe without incurring the heavy costs of land line telephones. Secondly, VoIP networks allow for the facility of transmitting both voice and data at the same time, hence it reduces the time span and the need to send data through a separate source such as the postal services, which may not be reliable in remote locations. Broadband connections can be established in the wireless mode to any location and hence offer an inexpensive way of communicating, therefore they are very useful to knowledge workers. Moreover, they are also simple to operate, without the need for knowledge workers to resort to expert help in managing such network and this ease of operation is another reason favoring their use. VoIP is being increasingly adopted by more and more organizations in America. A survey conducted by Infonetics Research showed that 36% of large organizations, 23% of the midsized and 14% of the small North American companies were already using these networks and usage was expected to triple by 2010. (Hickey, 2006). Another survey that was carried out by Information Week on 280 companies that were currently using or planning to use VoIP systems revealed the following advantages that were perceived in the use of these systems: (a) lowering of telephone costs (b) merging of voice and data communications (c) one stop communications platform for two or more areas (d) ease of management and (d) scalability. 3. The business environment today is characterized by the use of the tools of technology, where the production of an innovative product or service can considerably enhance the competitive advantage that a business enjoys in the marketplace. Since electronic products and services can be easily and quickly replicated or improved upon by other service providers, the speed with which innovative products and services are released by an organization are likely to impact upon its level of success. Within an organization, it is important that there is quality in decision making, but speed is becoming increasingly important and relevant in ensuring competitive advantage and organizational success. In a global economy that is driven by knowledge and innovation, holding on to old decision making styles which are more centralized and time consuming is likely to prove detrimental to an organization. Customer tastes are changing fast and customers also expect faster response times in an age of technology. When a manager or decision maker prefers to wait for all the facts to roll in before making a decision, then it may often be too late, because a competitor would have accessed the market or taped into the changing customer tastes faster and thereby derive the market benefits of such decisions. One such example that may be cited is the case of Google which beat out Yahoo. Although Yahoo was the first search engine to be launched, it was Google that was able to capitalize on it and seize the initiative in offering an exclusive search engine that has now become the preferred one used by customers, with Google consistently drawing more visitors as compared to Yahoo (Duncan, 2008). This was the direct result of faster decision making by Google which result in the seizure of the search engine market before its profit making potential and viability was fully known. 4. Constant innovation of products and services has become a vital element in organizational operations in the global economy. It is not enough for knowledge workers to apply themselves to the development of new and innovative solutions to problems, in most instances these problems are required to be fixed within a very short time frame because of the pressures from competitors. At the same time quality cannot be compromised because an inferior quality or product could generate bad feedback from customers and cause a decline in sales, thereby impacting negatively upon the organization’s productivity. One of the areas that uses knowledge workers for example, is the pharmaceutical sector where knowledge workers form a major part of the research and development department. In developing new drugs, innovation is the key but it is also associated with considerable risk because it could cause unhealthy side effects which will not become apparent until several years later. In emphasizing the need to reconcile speed, cost and quality as they apply to individual knowledge workers in the development of new drugs, James Mullen, the President of Biogen Idec points out that a knowledge worker must possess all three. Starting with quality, the objective must be to achieve a fast turnover and cut costs at the same time.(USA Today, 2004). He then cites an example where one of the challenges posed was in achieving a faster timeline for the approval of a drug. The FDA generally provided an approval in six months, but Mullen challenged his research team to do it in 90 days and these knowledge workers were able to get together and think through a way to achieve this objective. References * Duncan, Geoff, 2008. “Google beats Yahoo for most web traffic”, Retrieved October 29, 2008 from: http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/16737/google-beats-yahoo-for-most-web-traffic * Hickey, Andrew R, 2006. “VoIP will soon be mainstream”, Unified Communications News, Retrieved October 28, 2008 from: http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid186_gci1187797,00.html * Solar Electricity explained. Accessed October 28, 2008 from: http://www.electricityforum.com/solar-electricity.html * USA Today, 2004. “It all starts with quality, Biogen Idec CEO says”, USA Today, December 19, 2004, Accessed October 29, 2008 from: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2004-12-19-biogen-advice_x.htm * Wallingford, Theodore, 2005. “What is VoIP?” Accessed October 28, 2008 from: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/09/02/what-is-voip.html Read More