Technology, Policy and Activism for Rural Telecommunications

1. Technology, Policy and Activism for Rural Telecommunications Arun Mehta www.holisticit.com www.radiophony.com www.indataportal.com

2. Reading List • http://www.saschameinrath.com/writings/WirelessingTheWorld.rtf • http://www.netparadox.com/fccletter.html • http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~gaj1/auctngg.html • http://indataportal.com/optical/WOC.htm • http://www.freifunk.net:8080/sc2004/wiki/ThankYouDjursland

3. Technologies we look at • FM Radio • WiFi • Wireless (Free Space) Optical Communications

4. Why Radio? • Natural: we know how to speak before we know how to read and write. • Flexible: we speak five times faster than we can type and 10 times faster than we can write • Cost-effective: only communications technology the poor can afford • Growing: currently exploding on the Internet • Democratic: far more people are able to produce quality audio content than written

5. An ecologically-friendly Public-Address System • The same sort of range as a loudspeaker, but unlike the regular PA system, • A hundred can coexist, without mutual interference • 24-hour operation possible • Excellent quality at the furthest point • You can turn it off in your space

6. Innovative uses of FM • Low-cost simultaneous translation (used at Asian Social Forum, >8000 people had cheap FM radios with earphones, we had one FM transmitter for each language • Radio browsing: post questions to the radio station, someone finds out the answer, broadcasts the answer in the local language • Open source design on our website, we only come to know when there is a problem ;-)

7. For a radio station you need… • An antenna…

8. MD player or equivalent, a mike, an operator…

9. A 50mW transmitter!

10. How about permission? • 50 milliWatt FM transmitters in the form of cordless mikes and car door openers were widely sold in the market, and so, we assumed that they were legal. • With 50 mW, we could reach about 500 meters outdoors

11. The WPC objected… • So we asked (Apr. 16, 2003) how come the rich were allowed to do Karaoke with FM transmitters, but a poor, self-help womens’ group could not popularize micro-finance with it? • WPC replied: “Use of certain wireless toys and gadgets under certain conditions are exempted from licensing requirements, in specified frequency bands." • Anything above 1mW needs a license

12. Why WiFi? • Broadband • Open standards • Multitude of suppliers • Open source, free software • Doesn’t need experts to set up and maintain (e.g. Djursland, Denmark) • Same tech for WAN and LAN, so large quantities and low price

13. How to change policy • responses to discussion papers • Oral comments at open house meetings • Legal challenge • Experimentation license • “Piracy”

14. Why Wireless Optical? • No regulatory bottlenecks • No license fees • Power efficient (to get the same focussing with 1GHz, you need an antenna that is 100 meters across), so lower capital cost • Higher intrinsic security: hard to intercept a light beam without interrupting communications • Components (lasers, photodiodes, CCDs, lenses,…) are inexpensive, off the shelf • Compatible with optic fiber, our preferred long-distance medium

15. Low Cost Transceiver • Mike-chip-laser for sending audio • FM Radio for receiving • A PC with optical receiver at a high point picks up light, converts to audio, queues for transmission via a low-cost FM transmitter • This is effectively an audio chat channel

16. How to get technological change without vast resources • You write about it on the Net • You talk about it at conferences • Start a mailing list (e.g. wirelessoptical@yahoogroups.com) • Use a Wiki for collaborative work • Get universities interested…

17. Moral of the story • Engineers no longer can get by knowing technology alone • They need to understand law (e.g. IPR), policy-making process, psychology, teamwork, communications,… • They need to be activists • The rest of the world need to understand technology too