Peru signs up for 260,000 OLPC laptops...

One month after the One Laptop Per Child charity went into mass production with its $188 laptop, the Peruvian government has signed a contract to purchase 260,000 units.

Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) professor and founder of the project, announced the deal on Saturday. He also revealed that Mexican billionaire and long-time friend, Carlos Slim, had ordered 50,000 units for distribution in Mexico.

In November, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) charity contracted Taiwan's Quanta Computer to start producing the green-and-white computer in its new Changshu manufacturing centre, which is located north-west of Shanghai.

The first countries to place mass orders for the rugged green-and-white laptops were Uruguay and Mongolia.

Ivan Krstić, the director of security architecture for the OLPC project, has said that Uruguayan water and mobile-phone utility companies have allowed the organisation to plant wireless access points on existing towers to facilitate the laptop's use.