The Coca-Cola Company plans to erect 150 kiosks in 20 countries that will offer water, electricity and Internet connections; they may also sell Coke and other products. “We’re calling it a downtown in a box,” said Serena Levy, a company spokeswoman. The announcement was made by Coca-Cola’s chairman, Muhtar Kent, at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting. Right now, one such kiosk exists, a pilot version in Heidelberg, South Africa. It is a shipping container with solar panels for power, a satellite dish for wireless communication and a Slingshot water distiller designed by Dean Kamen, the Segway inventor. Setup costs are an issue; for example, the first Slingshots cost more than $100,000 to build, but Mr. Kamen has said that he hopes volume will push the price below $2,000. Ideally, the Coca-Cola Company said, the kiosks will be run by women.
