Rural ICT

1. Community-Owned, Technologically Innovative and Sustainable Rural ICT Gideon Hayford Chonia gideon.chonia@id.unizh.ch Rural ICT

2. Internet technological revolution has changed the lives of current generations, and never before has a communications revolution spread so rapidly. ICT is a critical tool to tackle development issues in developing countries. Despite ICT’s massive potential, the current global information explosion has had surprisingly little impact on development activities and access to practical information for rural communities. ICT for Development

3. Health Agriculture Rainfall (forecasting) Cropping Pattern Modern Techniques of Cultivation/Farming Irrigation (Sources) Information on Market and Market Prices Education Distance Education/Learning Information on Schools & Virtual Schooling Government Information Information on Soft loans & Financial Institutions Information on Government Go downs Land Records Rural Information Needs

4. Having identified the various information needs for the rural consumer, the next question that arises is: What kind of model is appropriate to serve the rural communities? What is the size of investment required? What problems and challenges an organization is likely to confront if it sets out to provide such services? Rural Information Needs

5. Will these services make an impact that would justify investing in ICTs for development rather than investing directly in: Health, Sanitation, Water, Power, Roads etc? Rural Information Needs

6. At the same time, questions are being asked if ICTs are the way to go in developing countries, Where most rural populations lack running water and sanitation systems, electricity is still a scarce and intermittent resource, roads are poor and education is a luxury. Rural ICT Challenges and Obstacles

7. The greatest obstacles to rural development in developing economies are large distances and inadequate infrastructure. The loop of low income, low tele-density, poor infrastructure, low education, poor awareness, poor governance, lack of political commitment, high bureaucratic attitude and non-availability of relevant and related contents Rural ICT Challenges and Obstacles

8. Dispersed populations and low levels of income translate into higher costs and reduced per-customer returns, rendering conventional approaches economically unattractive, Pooling users in the form of telecentres and cybercafes can enhance usage levels, but extending the reach of the network remains the key challenge. Rural ICT Challenges and Obstacles

9. The most significant capital costs in offering community Internet are for hardware and network access equipment. Personal Computers PCs remain the dominant access device, but personal computers are inappropriate for the developing world across many dimensions. relatively high cost, low reliability, unsuitable user interface, environmental sensitivity, and high power consumption. Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

10. Low cost portable alternative to PCs Network-enabled next generation appliances can today be priced at under US$300 Simputer Handheld appliances (http://www.simputer.org) Pengachu Peer-to-peer voice or data connectivity, constructed especially for infrastructure-poor places (http://web.media.mit.edu/~rehmi/pengachu/v3_document.htm) Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

11. Network Fixed and mobile wireless technologies typically comprises the majority of all infrastructure costs Those rural communities within microwave radio reach of existing fiber optic cable links can effectively make use of Wireless Local Loop (WLL) last mile solutions WLL solutions such as the corDECT technology can provide both telephone and Internet connectivity up to 10 km away from the base station, and 25 km from a relay base station. Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

12. Network corDECT system (http://www.tenet.res.in) The corDECT system is engineered primarily for low price, rather than added and often unnecessary features. It is therefore designed for developing world needs. The system offers 35.5/70 Kbps simultaneous Voice/Data transmission The corDECT air interface supports 10 kms of line-of-sight connectivity and has the provision to extend this to 25 kms using Repeaters. CorDECT is priced under US$300 per subscriber line Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

13. Network VSAT For rural communities too distant, Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite is a common approach for connectivity Today's prices for send/receive units range from about US$4,000 to over US$10,000 Making this approach inappropriate for many poor or small communities. Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

14. Network VHF or UHF wireless solutions These are potentially compelling option for narrowband connectivity that can also function in remote and rough terrain or relatively depopulated, settings It transmits over 200 km distances, and provide upwards of 9.6 Kbps connectivity These can cost under US$800 per subscriber line Uganda Connect http://www.uconnect.org/ Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

15. Network Telephone Telephone toll charges can make up a heavy percentage of recurrent costs if a regular telephone call is necessary to connect to the Internet Particularly given the prevalence of time-metered calling and Internet Service Providers (ISP) that require long-distance calls. Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

16. Labor and Numeration One commonly observed strategy for telecenters is to hire secondary and tertiary students at low wages to serve as facilitators and perform other tasks such as repair and research, and to make the position more appealing by offering free Internet access Rural ICT Infrastructure and Costs

17. The Business If equipment, connections, rent, and salaries, are the economic pains needed to offer rural Internet service, then user fees for applications and remote services, and income resulting from the aggregation of many users are the economic gains Generating Revenue from Rural Internet Services

18. User fees, however, yield other benefits besides the generation of financial support, they also ensure: - economical use of the infrastructure and - offer a market incentive and - feedback for content, applications, and services User fees are particularly difficult to generate in some cases, but they are not the only source of income. Generating Revenue

19. Communication is both a core desire of most communities and a relatively straightforward process to support with the use of ICTs. Whereas, for instance, designing a Web interface to manage a supply chain and integrate it into business can be quite complex, Voice and text communications applications, being fairly simple and requiring minimal localization, can quickly begin running in communities Generating Revenue

20. The three main classes of revenue production for rural Internet services. First is fee-for-services such as core communications, education, commerce, government applications, entertainment, training Second is a variety of remote services and back office activities. Finally, the aggregation of services and users provide opportunities for revenue Generating Revenue

21. Text and voice services such as e-mail, voice mail, chat, and Voice over Internet Protocol (Internet telephony or VoIP) are particularly relevant in many developing world contexts. With public Internet access sometimes costing less per hour than a local telephone call, e-mail, chat, voice mail, and VoIP are appealing cost savings measures. Note that VoIP is illegal in many countries Generating Revenue

22. Community ownership An alternative approach for rural ICT access is the community ownershipmodel It combines community-owned Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT) enterprises with the new wave of wireless and relatedtechnologies. This approach greatly reduces costs and maximize the value-added of community resources. Self-Sustainable Internet Services

23. Advantages of a Community-ownership model The impact on development is greater as local needs are addressed more effectively, while they act as a community catalyst and as a support for a range of other development activities. Local community control and participation is widely recognised as being critical to the success of ICT projects such as telecentres and application development. Self-Sustainable Internet Services

24. Advantages of a Community-ownership model The viability of the community ownership approach, although, depends on two pressing needs: access to finance an enabling environment at nationaland local level. These are essential to ensure long-term sustainability from the community itself. Self-Sustainable Internet Services

25. ICT alone cannot improve the service delivery to rural poor Current ICT solutions are too costly for the level of usage being experienced. The challenge for the management of such system lies in enhancing the services to make the system cost effective, while benefiting the rural poor, without worsening the digital divide. Thank You Conclusion