Broadband provision to underprivileged rural communities

Abstract

Providing access to remote rural areas presents a unique set of technical and non-technical challenges. These challenges are key issues that arise when deploying wireless networks to remote rural areas in developing countries; long distances between nodes, difficulties in getting line of sight, severe climate conditions, single low-bandwidth gateways to the Internet, high cost of Internet connectivity, lack of proper road infrastructure, and lack of reliable power supply. These severe conditions combine with other socio-economical factors (such as low per capita income) to offer unique sets of challenges that call for non-traditional techniques to provide telecommunication and broadband connectivity of acceptable quality and at affordable price to citizens, especially those in poorly resourced rural areas. Furthermore, the lack of reliable energy supply in remote rural areas requires more innovative ways of reducing the total amount of energy that is needed to operate these wireless communications infrastructures. This paper highlights the technical details of the Wireless Mesh Network model to indicate how a specific project (Wireless Mesh Network) funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) is currently being implemented by the Meraka Institute of the CSIR. This project will be carried out in communities in selected areas (Nkangala, Sekhukhune and John Taolo Gaetsewe) in South Africa. The main focus of this project is the deployment of low-cost broadband connectivity in underprivileged communities.