My talk about telecoms in Africa and the motivation behind Village Telco. The streaming video of the talk can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldd7SIiuJGg
21. Not Your Average Wifi Device
Outdoor Ready
Weatherised
UV Protected
Tough Sealed Unit
Capable of
surviving
line spike,
brownouts,
power
surges.
Flexible
Accepts 9-40V
Can be powered
via phone or data
line
32. How to get
involved
If you would like to support a
Village Telco directly, please
get in touch:
steve@villagetelco.org
twitter @stevesong
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
http://villagetelco.org twitter @villagetelco
33. Image Credits
Google Server by NiallKennedy Rael Lissoos by edyson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/102932643 http://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/2340944921/
BY NC BY NC
IBM Blue Gene by Argonne National Library Antenna Setup by Razvan Caliman
http://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/3334947628 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsk/2760922792/#
BY SA BY
Telephone Box by Vissago Fibre Optic Sensors by PNNL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vissago/4249091962/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnnl/3638446385/
BY NC BY NC SA
Telephone Line by fernando
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernando/522949553/
BY SA Scaffolding in Addis Ababa
Courtesy Owen Barder
http://www.owen.org
Blackjack by Shannon K
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonmary/3040998286/
BY SA ND
Reserved Parking
Licensed from iStockPhoto
http://www.istockphoto.com
Weakest Link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayvando707/6843918403/
All Rights Reserved - Re-used by permission Other photos CC BY SA Village Telco
Editor's Notes
Mobile CoverageWhile covering a large percentage of the population, it doesn’t cover that much of the country.
Lack of Access to Radio Spectrum Constrains Competition and GrowthMost mobile spectrum is controlled by a few incumbents who have a great deal of influence over the market
The Birth of the Mesh PotatoWorkshop in South Africa to ask the question, how to scale WiFi-based voice and data services. Experimented with various options, technologies.
Genesis of the Mesh PotatoMy poor artist’s conceptPrototype literally hacked into an existing Wireless AP200 beta unitsFinal production version.
Mesh Potato FeaturesNot your average access point.UV protected plastic. Single body molding.Accepts anything from 9-40VDC, so can be powered easily by alternative sources… e.g. car battery, solar.Toughened for rural Africa. Capable of withstanding line spikes, power surges, brownouts, anything short of a direct lightning strike.Accepts power via power points, Power Over Telephone Line, Power Over EthernetBased one Open Source technologies. OpenWRT, BATMAN, Asterisk, etc
Wayne AbroueEastern Cape South AfricaGriqua people’s enclaveInitially built a 40km WiFi linkSuccumbed to demand from friends and familyNow cnnects advice centres, creches, welfare kitchensStarted as a free service, now a non-profit organisationMixture of technologies