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Bike-powered Internet

Marguerite Reardon Former senior reporter
Marguerite Reardon started as a CNET News reporter in 2004, covering cellphone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate and the consolidation of the phone companies.
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Marguerite Reardon

How do you bring Internet service to remote parts of the world that don't even have electricity? Simple -- just get a bicycle.

That's what the nonprofit group called Inveneo is doing in Uganda, according to a recent article in Infoworld. The group has designed a Linux-based VoIP system powered by a bicycle. For every hour of talk time, users pedal about 15 minutes. The bike is mainly used as back up to solar power, the article said. Calls are routed to the traditional phone network over Wi-Fi connections.

Bike-powered Internet also sounds like a great idea for lazy people like me. It could be the answer to my fitness woes. I can find just about any excuse for avoiding the gym, but if I had to hop on the bike just to make a phone call or send a few emails, I'd have to do it. I'd be working off pounds without even realizing it! I'm sold, sign me up, Inveneo!