BasicInternet:Sustainability of Village Connectivity
From its-wiki.no
| Sustainability of Village Connectivity | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
BasicInternet:Sustainability of Village Connectivity
| Title | BasicInternet:Sustainability of Village Connectivity |
|---|---|
| Place | skype |
| Date, Time | 2019/11/28, 1000-1100 |
| Contact Person | Josef.Noll |
| Participants | Catherine R. Kimambo, Albert Richard, Justina Mashiba, Josef Noll |
| related to Project | DigI, BasicInternet |
| Keywords |
| this page was created by Special:FormEdit/Meeting, and can be edited by Special:FormEdit/Meeting/BasicInternet:Sustainability of Village Connectivity |
| Category:Meeting |
Executive Summary
UCSAF and the Digital Inclusion (DigI) project discussed topics related to connectivity of rural areas and content provision, both from a national and an international perspective. The DigI project has connected about 10 villages/schools, focussing on how digital health information (in terms of videos and animations) increases the knowledge of the local society and contribute to digital inclusion.
Specific technical issues were discussed, including how the mobile network is used to bring Internet Information Spots into the villages. Examples were the 22 km distance to the Tigo mobile towers, when connecting to the market place of Selela, and the connectivity over the mountainous ridge when establishing a village information spot in Izazi.
This page summarises the topics to be discussed, and acts as a basis for a follow-up meeting between UCSAF and DigI team members.
Topics being discussed
Both UCSAF and BasicInternet presented their ongoing work, including
- UCSAF: having connected 25 schools together with Vodacom, and plans to ready for connection another 150 public schools. Looking also for solutions for Telemedicine.
- BasicInternet: as part of the DigI project, has connected about 10 villages/schools, and is now concentrating on a sustainable business model.
Digital Public Goods for Tanzania
Based on the DigI results, we submitted input to the United Nations High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. The Panel, led my Melinda Gates and Jack Ma, presented the report The Age of Digital Interdependence, Report of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, https://digitalcooperation.org, in Jun2019 - The report contains a set of recommendations, notably:
- 1A: We recommend that by 2030, every adult should have affordable access to digital networks, as well as digitally-enabled financial and health services, as a means to make a substantial contribution to achieving the SDGs…
- 1B: We recommend that a broad, multi-stakeholder alliance, involving the UN, create a platform for sharing digital public goods, ….
- The report further mentioned the work of the DigI project in Tanzania b) Chapter 2 page 12, pointing to reference 59 and the full reference: "One example of building internet access around community needs, in this case health, is a collaboration between the Basic Internet Foundation and health centres in Tanzania; see Vision 2030, available at https://www.vision2030.no/index.php/en/visjon2030-projects/non-discriminating-access-for-digital-inclusion. The Panel has been informed that a 'common bid' for connectivity is being prepared by ITU, UNICEF and the World Bank.
UNICEF is coordinating the work on the recommendations 1A and 1B, especially through
- Project Connect by Unicef, focus on connecting schools: https://www.projectconnect.world/
- Platform for Digital Public Goods: https://digitalpublicgoods.net/
As a result of the DigI work, the government of Norway has asked Prof. Josef Noll to become the external expert for the connection of Recommendations 1A and 1B. Together with the DigI team, we suggested to promote on free access to Digital Public Goods (DPGs)"'. We suggest an approach where lightweight DPGs are delivered over all networks for free, and where heavy DPGs are provided to local information spots, e.g. a server at a school.
Technology issues - connectivity
Based on our technological expertise from both mobile and wireless access, we promoted the novel approach of "Internet Lite" and the "free access to Internet Lite" to everyone in the community. The suggestion has three aspects:
- Extending the access into areas where there is no connectivity
- Enabling access for those without a mobile phone or a mobile broadband connection
- The technology foundation for Internet Lite, asking for a set of standards for low-bandwidth Internet.
All three aspects have been piloted and demonstrated as part of the DigI project.
1) Extending the access to areas where there is no connectivity. In rural Tanzania we find predominantly 2G and partly 3G networks. Mounting a By mounting a 6 m pole, and set a direct antenna on top of the pole, we actually achieve some 18 dB signal increase.
2) 3) The accelerated mobile pages (AMP) protocol is an example of such services. In p
Digital Health Information to the community
Sustainable Operations
Open issues and other topics
- Regarding Telemedicine, a certain Quality of Service (QoS) is required. As the solution provided by the Basic Internet Foundation works in collaboration with the mobile network operators, the QoS depends on the delivered mobile network capacity. We have achieved 20 Mbit/s in Izazi, though having "no reception" (-103 dBm) with a handhold device. Though, when the network got congested, the quality of the download speed dropped drastically. Furthermore, the 3G network is extremely week on uplink (typically some 70-200 kbit/s), which does not support Telemedicine in a sufficient quality.
- The DigI project has achieved a good international attention, see List of Publications and other DigI Achievements
Conclusions and Way ahead
We concluded on the common interest in rural connectivity, and a potential interest in making information available as Digital Public Goods. Based on the input of this page, UCSAF will comment and ask for further clarifications.
As a follow-up, a meeting in Dodoma is planned with participation from Felix Sukums and Catherine Kimambo.