rural edge – Integra LLC

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Power to the (rural) People!

Photo: SANGONeT

In my recent interviews with telecoms, NGOs, and governments working in Africa I’ve noticed a common theme. In a very generalized sense, Internet infrastructure is in place (or under construction) in urban centers throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Even in places where connectivity is still lacking, like in South Sudan and Somalia, initiatives are underway to light up those nations. I think it is appropriate to say that this stage of communication development, which I will call connectivity 1.0, has the necessary foundation for completion.

Connectivity 2.0, then, is focused on rural Africa. Specifically, it entails:

(1) how to bring connectivity to rural areas in financially sustainable ways

(2) how to make the Internet and mobiles useful and relevant tools for rural lifestyle

Others in the ICT4D space have recognized this need as well. Infodev’s Program Manager Valerie D’Costa recently spoke on the urgent need to use ICTs especially for rural development projects. One of the ITU’s new flagship initiatives is to bring ICTs to rural schools and villages. And USAID leaders repeatedly emphasize the power of mobile phones for agricultural development in rural areas.

SANGONeT, an umbrella NGO specializing in ICT expertise and agricultural development, is taking advantage of this momentum, and is planning an upcoming conference in South Africa on ICT4RD (ICT for rural development), slated for November 1-3, 2011. The South African Departments of Communication and Rural Development, the Gates Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft, and InfoDev are sponsoring the conference. They hope to attract national USFs in Sub-Saharan Africa, NGOs, and telecom companies.

The collaboration between these entities is vital to creating sustainable solutions, SANGONeT Program Manager Matthew de Gale explains. With commitments from government USFs in Zambia, Uganda, and South Africa to attend, de Gale hopes that additional USFs and international organizations like USAID and the World Bank will also send representatives, helping African governments to make the most informed policy decisions regarding rural development. Hopefully, then, policymakers will meet the challenges posed by connectivity 2.0.

July 15, 2011/by actualize

Asia, Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Where we work

Indonesia Aims to Have 30% Broadband Penetration by 2014

The Indonesian Ministry of Economy recently publicly announced its goal to increase “meaningful” broadband penetration by 30% by 2014. The goal is optimistic; Internet penetration was 12.3% in 2010, only 18% of which was broadband, making broadband penetration around 2.2% of the population.

In the Jakarta Declaration for Meaningful Broadband released on April 14, 2011, a collection of government and private industry ICT leaders in the Indonesia agreed on the goal to bring “meaningful” broadband access – affordable, usable, and empowering – from under 3% to a ten-fold increase of 30% within three years. This “big push” for broadband penetration is founded on a US$9.2 billion plan. The plan includes $4.3 billion public-private partnership (PPP) funding allocation, linking PT Telecom’s fibre optic cable to “last mile” initiatives to connect rural, more isolated areas. According to estimates, Elizabeth Aris, expert on National Broadband Networks, states that such a PPP would leave costs at “$3 a month per consumer.”

Photo Credit: Digitaldivide.org

Critics of the fund claim that Indonesia has more pressing needs, that broadband should be left entirely to the private sector, and that Indonesia’s goal is implausible. The Meaningful Broadband Working Group is not deterred, however. Craig Smith, former Harvard Professor and current director of the Investment Group Against the Digital Divide, explains that the Indonesian government has set specific goals to minimize the gap in income inequality, but additional goals to increase GDP.

“The problem with GDP growth is that it only benefits the wealthy. So, the government says let’s use broadband that could create equitable growth… The problem is that they did not understand the critical mass of broadband… is important to require the equitable growth,” Smith said. In other words, broadband penetration is an economic equalizer as well as accelerator, but only when large investments into IT infrastructure are made.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

Asia, Connectivity, Democracy & Governance, Legal & Regulatory, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Where we work

ICT Access: a Human Right in Pakistan

Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani held a press conference on Tuesday, declaring that ICT access and use is vital to the development of Pakistan. Given recent modifications in the allocation and use of USF funds in Pakistan, Gilani’s strong support for ICT investment is particularly noteworthy.

At the 24^th Board Meeting for USF Pakistani, presiding Gilani stated that ICTs potential could not be overemphasized in terms of socio-economic development and job opportunities. He went on to explain that the ability to communicate in the information driven era was a basic human right. These are strong words, especially in light of current debates about the Internet as a human right at the UN and amongst practitioners.

Gilani’s support comes just weeks after Pakistan’s USF announced an agreement with national telecommunications consultant Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) to “promote development of telecom services in underserved areas.” In the partnership, PTCL will help USF to meet its targeted goals, advancing Gilani’s agenda of providing IT access as a human right.

Photo Credit: The Express Tribune News Network

The USF-PTCL partnership to focus on the underserved is important to the success of Pakistan’s efforts to provide ICT access to all its citizens. According to other reports, however, previous USF funds in Pakistan were not utilized due to the Prime Minister’s failure to attend meetings with the board and approve spending for the entire last year.

The ICT industry in Pakistan has major changes as of late. USF Pakistan terminated a contract with telecommunications giant Telenor, citing security concerns that limited project completion. Another project, to provide fiber optic cables to the Balochistan region, was approved this week. And Telenor and Boston Consulting Group also completed a study finding that mobile financial services could increase the GDP by 3%.

USF funds disbursement is not a problem unique to Pakistan. In fact, just last month, reports circulated about the U.S. FCC’s failure to disburse USF funds. Despite this, however, public-private partnerships (PPP) offer hope for more effective USF fund usage.

June 3, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Rural Connectivity Challenge: Extending Access to the Rural Edge

Photo source: PCFastlane

Over the past several years a tremendous amount of progress has been made in narrowing the urban-rural “Digital Divide.” This has primarily been accomplished through market liberalization and subsequent build out of mobile networks–some of which reach into rural localities.

While this urban-rural gap is being narrowed, this is not universal. Further, it is primarily a voice phenomenon. With regards to Internet and specifically broadband, this divide remains, and in relative terms it continues to grow even wider in most rural locations.

A May 2008 report from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) report entitled, “Measuring Information and Communication Technology Available in Villages and Rural Areas,” defines this challenge in the following manner:

At the time of the report, the total population of developing countries stood at 5.1 billion;
Of this total, approximately 56 percent, or 2.85 billion lived in rural areas;
This rural population lived in 2.96 million discrete rural localities, with an average population of 1,826.

More recent data estimates while there are approximately 5.0 billion mobile subscribers world wide–out of a world population of 6.7-6.8 billion, somewhere between a population of 1.0 and 1.5 billion live in rural localities where they are without any mobile coverage. A likely near-equal number are without “affordable” coverage.

The Global Broadband and Innovations (GBI) Program places a priority on addressing this urban-rural gap, with a focus on two key areas;

Enhancing Universal Service Funds (USFs), and
Promoting deployment of low cost connectivity solutions.

Universal Service Funds–A growing number of countries have established USFs, however, often these are not well designed to reach optimal benefit, nor are they managed such as to provide maximum value. The GBI has been designed to provide targeted technical assistance (TA) to help countries with better design and operations of their USFs. Current efforts are underway in partnership with Intel in carrying out a series of regional USF Workshops to move this agenda forward. Another project is underway in Africa through support of the Africa Bureau, to provide TA to a number of countries where TA will make a near-term impact.

The focus of USFs is no longer simply placing a phone or two into a rural community, but rather seeking to leverage both broadband and voice connectivity for expanding socioeconomic opportunities into these rural communities.

Nor is the focus such as to create an approach for subsidizing on-going operations of carriers operating in rural localities. There is also a focus on leveraging USFs to fund needed CapEx, where–where by working with the carriers and high tech firms producing low-cost solutions, financially sustainable approach can be deployed for connecting the lower-income, lower-density rural communities.

Low Cost Broadband and Voice Solutions–This parallel effort is also being undertaken by the GBI Program. Here the GBI is engaged in research and dialog to identify low-cost rural connectivity solutions. This focus is on providing wireless community-wide convergent networks that provide both broadband and voice services.

Preliminary research has uncovered a small but growing number of innovative solutions now being commercialized. A potential new set of technologies, Femtocells, hold significant promise in lowering the capital and operating costs for reaching into lower-income, lower-density rural communities. Several of these are solar powered solutions such they they can provide affordable coverage in areas where there is not access to a national power grid.

The GBI program has informally partnered with Femto Forum—a global Femtocell industry group and the Global VSAT Forum, a global satellite industry group, to further explore the technical and financial viability of these technologies. Discussions are underway to build off of their respective strengths towards delivering scalable, replicable, and sustainable solutions that reach even further into remote rural locations. And with this expanded connectivity, delivering access to a wide range of socioeconomic services.

Other lower-cost solution sets are being explored with regard to meeting this low-cost requirement. This exploration has included proof-of-concept trial configurations here in the U.S., as well as working with satellite and femtocell firms on broader scale international deployments.

The combination of USFs and the emerging lower-cost solutions more suitable for rural settings, hold the promise of ultimately eliminating the urban-rural “digital divide.” The GBI is working towards accelerating this where possible.

April 12, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Closing the Urban-Rural Digital Divide: New Off-Grid Technologies

In recent years there has been explosive growth in the global subscription rate for mobile services. However, estimates are that there remains a gap in coverage somewhere on the order of 1.0-1.5 billion potential subscribers. There is likely in addition to a gap of another 1.0+billion that have coverage but is not affordable Of these, the overwhelming proportion live in rural communities. Several reasons account for this lack of connectivity;

Economics—for the carriers, there is relatively low revenue compared to cost of delivery,
Lower hanging fruit—for most carriers, there are simply more profitable markets,
Universal service funds—often these are not in place or are not effective in addressing this urban-rural gap, and
Lack of electricity—in many rural localities there is simply the lack of power.

Fortunately this situation is beginning to change, with the following dynamics making this rural expansion increasingly practical.

Smaller-Lower Cost Pico-Micro Solutions—most rural communities have an average population of less than 2,000, and equipment companies are just recently starting to deliver solutions that address this market

Lower Cost Backhaul Solutions—historically mobile backhauls have been proprietary—further adding to the delivery cost. The shift now is to a pure IP backhaul. And with this, edge switching is possible for keeping local calls local—a critical element when the backhaul is via satellite. IP backhaul also provides a single convergent solution that delivers both voice and broadband to the rural communities.

Photo Credit: VNL

Solar Powered Solutions—many of these small rural solutions are capable of being powered by solar, both at the tower-base station, as well as for the mobile handsets. This is an absolute requirement as the number of communities not connected to a national grid is very similar to those without mobile/broadband coverage.

MicroTelco Business Model—the emerging technical and business model needed to address the rural challenge is that of a massively parallel approach. This requires a technology that can be installed and supported by non-technical staff. It also requires an approach by the carrier that move primary support to the rural community–possibly through a local community operator under the license of a carrier.

While the industry is just now beginning to focus on this market, a number of firms are starting to deliver low cost rural mobile solutions. There is considerable variance in these solutions, but some are beginning to get the monthly average revenue per unit (monthly ARPU) required for sustainability of voice services, down to the $3-5/month range. The following reflect several:

VNL—VNL is a company from India that has introduced a WorldGSM product line and community business model

Altobridge—Altobridge is an Irish company with a unique set of technologies and business model

STM Group—The STM Group offers complete backhaul and local distribution through their SuperPico GSM products

Ubiquisys—Ubiquisys one of a growing number of Femtocell firms delivering rural low-cost rural solutions

Nokia Siemens Network—NSN’s Village Connection solutions deliver low Monthly ARPU solutions for rural settings

Alcatel-Lucent–Alcatel-Lucent has been making recent investments in their arena and are poised to introduce a new line of low-cost solutions suitable for rural areas within this new year (CY2011).

The above represent an exciting opportunity for ultimately eliminating the urban-rural divide. The GBI program is actively researching and engaging the above firms, along with others, to better position these within the overall context of USAID’s focus on addressing the rural gap.

March 1, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Connectivity, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Solar Nexus: Reliable Solar Power, Anywhere

Eric Youngren, founder of Solar Nexus International, serves as a catalyst for reliable, rural power solutions in the developing world. The Solar Nexus power center is an innovative solution for electricity that brings the quality tested North American off-grid solar installations to areas of the world where similar systems are rarely found.

The SolarNexus is an all-encompassing system, where all the high quality electronics necessary to convert the energy generated by the solar PV panels (or any other source of renewable energy) into power that is stored in batteries for later use.

SolarNexus power centers are sold as part of a complete package, shown here. The package includes PV panels, deep cycle batteries, mounting hardware, code-compliant wiring, and instructions

SolarNexus power center is designed for permanent indoor installation and includes instructions, training and support to ensure successful installations and build capacity in local communities. To understand how the Solar Nexus system operates, view this great introductory explanation on the Solar Nexus International website

Installation was performed by Ensol, of Dar es Salaam, TZ Photo Credit: Eric Youngren

A project was launched in April 2010, Solar Nexus International shipped 30 complete SolarNexus systems — including PV panels and deep cycle batteries — to Tanzania for a project run by the U.K. based charity SolarAid. The systems would be used to provide light and power to schools that were beyond the radius of the electricity grid. The mission was to replace the old, smokey, and potentially dangerous kerosene lanterns with effective, compact fluorescent light. This improved visability would allow more local children to attend the schools.

Eric traveled to Tanzania to assist in the training of local installation crews and help facilitate aptitude. One main goal of the founder and his company is to improve the knowledge, skills and capacity of the solar installers in the developing world to ensure the system’s sustainability and overall impact.

Visit the Solar Nexus International website and their blog for more information on current projects

February 10, 2011/by actualize