I'd say he's more wrong than right. There are basically no landline connections in large parts of Africa, since it's basically infeasible to cover the large distances involved with cables. Satellite is unaffordable for all practical purposes - when I'm talking about doctors and nurses I'm not talking about western foreign aid people but locals. If your average income is in the range of single digit USD a day, satellite comm is infeasible. Also, the communication system must be manageable and maintainable by locals with a basic eduction.

So the best available communication is often cellular, if any.

On the other hand malaria is a disease that only affects some parts of the population - namely the one that lives in malaria affected regions. Large parts of southern Africa are mosquito-free, hence no Malaria. To make up for that there's a ton of others diseases, so if you eliminate Malaria, you still have to fight Schistosomiasis [1], Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) [2] HIV and a lot of other diseases for which treatments may or may not exist. In a country where the average infection rate with HIV hovers at about 30% the gain from eradicating Malaria is limited at best. Let's not get into poverty and access to most basic health care.

It's not a simple problem that allows for a simple solution and even eliminating every conceivable disease that affects people in developing countries will only be one minor factor to improving the situation there. Those people need access to knowledge and information as much as they need health care and water. Otherwise they'll forever be stuck on western subsidies - just healthier and longer.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schistosomiasis [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_trypanosomiasis

Providing internet to the masses is one way of improving their chances of living to use it.

Doctors and nurses may have communications, but many countries do not have doctors and nurses even in every city, much less every little village.

It's clear we should be careful about not displacing funding for basic health care improvement with basic internet access, but they are not nearly always in opposition, and besides providing health care information, uses such as improving economic opportunities by giving access to market/pricing information also matters - for someone having to spend days getting their stuff to market, going to the right town to get the best price will also affect health: ability to afford sufficient food and shelter for starters.