Wireless Ghana

Wireless Mesh as a Transforming Tool
Submitted by Al Hammond on November 8, 2006 - 13:00.
Published in: Telecommunications and IT

Acumen Fund's Eric Cantor reports on the recent AirJaldi Summit and points to the revolutionary potential of wireless mesh networks to empower communities. Our own work on a new model for rural connectivity points in the same direction. WiFi mesh can be deployed easily, without sophisticated engineers. Some of the newest equipment has very low power needs, so can be readily and affordably paired with solar panels. Advanced mesh also has much expanded range, throughput, and interference management—so it can manage 10 hops with no loss of capacity, cover areas a mile square or greater, provide 15 Mbps bandwidth or more. By empowering a range of user devices—phones and PDAs as well as computers—mesh is more broadly accessible, even to those for whom literacy is a barrier.

Most importantly, WiFi mesh offers the potential of radically lower costs, especially for rural areas: in a pilot we are developing for a province in rural Vietnam, we project a cost of access (and in-network VOIP telephony) of less than $1 per household per year. Whether as stand-alone entrepreneurial efforts, community-owned systems, or low-cost extensions to mobile networks, we believe that mesh WiFi networks are the means to bring low income rural areas into the global conversation and the global economy.

read more | Al Hammond's blog |

Business or economical situation

Sorry, but i have to leave some critical words on this question? or at least ask an irritated question in response:

What does business means? Are we talking about moneymaking exploiting other peoples labour? I hope we dont. so ...

HOW CAN COMMUNITY WIRELESS CAN IMPROVE ECONOMICAL SITUATION OF THE AKUAPEM AND GHANA?

In many ways, id guess. To run it-empowerment and provide internet access to those who can not afford it on the regular market, for instance, can play a very important role in the current decentralisation campaign in ghana. one of its main objectives is to avoid the typical mass migration to the city (accra) through improvements in the rural areas. internet access is the key to knowledge. economically relevant knowledge is technology. technology is the key to economical success ... its not a one day affair ...

How about the WG project cooperating with the ministery of communications in the CIC program (Community Information Centers)? there are some very interesting aspects about those governmental CICs. They are working not only on internet access, but also on a variety specific content packages, even for illiterate people in the rural areas. They want to offer information on health, agriculture, IT etc. this information will be available whenever the people will be ready to use it... only internet access, without further effects and without linkage to certain content (empowerment), might even have negativ effects, for encouraging the youth to leave their "boring and hopeless" homes ...