Naidoo said it is Intel’s aim "to reach 16,000 teachers in Abuja in the next few months". But Intel’s aim may actually have much more to do with spreading Wimax strategically across Nigeria and Africa at large.
Nigeria already has the foundations of a Wimax network, but Intel hopes to dramatically expand the program.
“We at Intel believe in taking a holistic approach,” noted Naidoo, adding Intel was “working with governments, telecomms regulators, NGOs and market players to develop the ICT landscape in Africa”. So the holistic approach boils down to “we’ll train your teachers but you’re going to have to use our Wimax”.
In Nigeria, Intel has also managed to muscle OLPC out of the market, with the government giving out of Intel-powered classmate PCs in 200 schools instead.