The nice thing about the Internet is it doesn't require (much) central planning. All you need are some IP addresses and a willing upstream connection. The US Government is paying MCI millions for a few cell phones, while the Iraqis are bringing Internet cafes on-line with "salvaged" equipment. http://www.washtimes.com/business/20030525-100937-3873r.htm "The state company's engineers salvaged one of its satellite transceivers from the burned-out Ministry of Information and winched it atop a two-story building in the al-Adel neighborhood in West Baghdad. After weeks of cobbling and calibrating, the dish was able to send and receive a satellite signal about a week ago. It's a temporary earth station, soon to be an Internet cafe. "We built it from scrap. We had to weld it and build it manually," said Mr. Abdullah, a gray-haired man whose fingers fidget over a string of wooden prayer beads. With 50 computers squirreled away, and security guards and a diesel generator at the ready, the Baghdad cafe will offer the public its first taste of the Internet since early April."