TA VAN (WiMAX Day). Crossing the digital divide this week finds one on the northern Vietnamese province of Lao Cai, in a tiny village named Ta Van. The village received its 15 minutes of fame this week following an announcement by Intel, Vietnam Data Communication (VDC), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAid) that a WiMAX network had been deployed in 19 sites throughout the province, and connected to the Internet using a satellite link.

This project is part of USAID’S “Last Mile Initiative,” a global program launched in 2004 to bring modern communications infrastructure to farmers and small businesses in rural areas. It is further supported by Intel’s rural development effort, the World Ahead Program, which is a $1 billion program that is bringing broadband technologies to rurual and developing communities.

In the village of Ta Van, a base station from Airspan Networks was set-up to provide connectivity to 11 locations, which include a health clinic, the post office and a school, as well as local guest houses.