Building a

Robust Telecommunications

Ecology with

Village Telco

Steve SongLIFT12

South AfricaVodacom WirelessCoverage Map

Econet WirelessCoverage Map

Zimbabwe

When access is expensive, it’s hard to learn to play the game

Resilience

TelephoneInfrastructure

InternetInfrastructure

SuperComputing

SuperfluousComputing

United States

Uganda

Ethiopia

The Unlicensed Ecosystem

Growth of WiFi

Source: Daily Wireless – www.dailywireless.org/2012/02/08/hotspot-2-0/

HackingHardware

ASimple

Idea

WirelessAccessPoint

AnalogueTelephonyAdaptorfor ordinary phones

Co

nce

pt

Pro

toty

pe

Bet

a

Pro

du

ctio

n

Not Your Average Wifi DeviceOutdoor ReadyWeatherisedUV ProtectedSealed UnitTough

Capable of surviving line spike, brownouts, power surges.

FlexibleAccepts 9-40VCan be powered via phone or data line

Mesh Potato Installation

ISP

Lemi SoaresDiliTimor Leste

East Timor

Wayne AbroueGriqua CommunitySouth Africa

Rael LissoosJohannesburgSouth Africa

Plans for 2012

Mesh Potato 2.0Open SourceOpen

HardwareFasterCheaper

A Parting Thought...

But only if we act together…

How to get involved

If you’re a developer, engineer, or entrepreneur, or just interested, please join us in the Village Telco development community at

http://bit.ly/vt-community

If you would like to support a Village Telco directly, please get in touch:steve@villagetelco.orgtwitter @stevesong

http://villagetelco.orgtwitter @villagetelco

Google Server by NiallKennedyhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/102932643BY NC

IBM Blue Gene by Argonne National Libraryhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/3334947628BY SA

Telephone Box by Vissagohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/vissago/4249091962/BY NC

Telephone Line by fernandohttp://www.flickr.com/photos/ernando/522949553/BY SA

Blackjack by Shannon Khttp://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonmary/3040998286/BY SA ND

Weakest Linkhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/jayvando707/6843918403/All Rights Reserved - Re-used by permission

Rael Lissoos by edysonhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/2340944921/BY NC

Antenna Setup by Razvan Calimanhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/tsk/2760922792/#BY

Fibre Optic Sensors by PNNLhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/pnnl/3638446385/BY NC SA

Scaffolding in Addis Ababa Courtesy Owen Barderhttp://www.owen.org

Reserved ParkingLicensed from iStockPhotohttp://www.istockphoto.com

Other photos CC BY SA Village Telco

Image Credits