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 infrastructure could be installed across the entire province for a capital cost of about $2.5 million. VSAT broadband leases (one per commune) cost $900 per year for 2 Mbps down and 0.5 Mbps up, amounting to less than $1 per household per year. AusAID is supporting the project because it sees a potential provincial infrastructure model for national scaling. In addition, the Connexions project has expressed interest, since its partnership with the Vietnam Education Ministry is already in place and province-scale rural broadband access that could be applied to educational purposes does not otherwise exist in the country. There is also a nascent local software industry, and Intel is building a chip factory in Vietnam. The combination of these features may make Vietnam, still a relatively poor country, an interesting and fruitful laboratory for new, IT-based educational approaches.

For reasons advanced earlier, a number of other countries may also provide useful venues—the Philippines, South Africa, and any of several countries in Latin America.