Intel`s truck to help drive GautengOnline

By Rodney Weidemann for Intel

Johannesburg, 11 Sep 2003

The newly launched Intel Mobile Truck - which has a fully operational showcase of information and communications technology - will complement both the company`s own education programmes and the soon to be rolled out GautengOnline project.

Steve Nossel, Intel SA`s country manager, says the aim of the Mobile Technology Unit (MTU) project is to stimulate interest in technology and to educate the consumer as to exactly what is available out there.

"Having studied the findings of the recent census, we discovered that there were not many homes that had PCs, so we chose to drive a campaign that will hopefully change this," he says.

"The MTU is an initiative that has been designed to drive the adoption of PCs in the home, at school and at work."

The MTU is contained in a 12-wheeler, 12-ton Mercedes-Benz Atego truck and trailer, and provides users with direct contact with the latest computing technology, such as Hyper-Threading, and the latest advances in small form factor, wireless computing systems.

"While the MTU is not directly affiliated to the GautengOnline project - as Intel is involved with the project as a supplier - it will be visiting schools and should help to build an interest in what technology can do, so it will have a positive spin-off for the programme," says Nossel.

He says the truck will also complement Intel`s own education projects, such as the Intel Computer Clubhouses and the company`s Teach to the Future programme, in the same manner, through stimulating interest in technology.

"While we hope that it will help to create excitement around technology and give people a better understanding of what technology can do, the truck will, however, not be used as a part of our education programmes," says Nossel.

"The truck is part of a marketing campaign, and we keep those separate from our social responsibility programmes, because as far as we are concerned, social responsibility is an investment in the country, not in ourselves."

The truck will travel throughout the country, visiting schools as well as shopping and entertainment venues and businesses in the small and medium enterprise market.

"Our aim is also to illustrate just how far technology has come and what it is capable of achieving, particularly as the truck is a hotspot, so it can show the potential for satellite and WiFi technology," he says.

The MTU will appear at events as disparate as the Getaway Show, the On The Night Lifestyle and Music Festival, SA Business Week, the Million Dollar Golf Challenge and the Summer Festival, as well as at numerous schools and universities.