A model for sustainable broadband penetration in poor rural and peri-urban communities
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Transcript of A model for sustainable broadband penetration in poor rural and peri-urban communities
A model for sustainable broadband in poor communities
Prof Alfredo Terzoli
Rhodes and Fort Hare Universities
National Treasury
Pretoria, June 14 2012
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How can we make possible real & empowering ICT deployment
in marginalized / disadvantaged areas?
The puzzle
Why is it not working?
• the cost of ICT infrastructure is too high to be supported only by the resources in marginalized areas
• the applications that are relevant in this context are just a handful and rarely move beyond the proof of concept
• the expertise of standard ICT solution providers is at best inadequate
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What is needed?
• something that reverses the classic telco equation: the resources to support the local infrastructure have to come from the outside, rather then from the inside
• a way to maximize the utilization of any ICT infrastructure
• real, well organized software production centres, with good current software engineering practices, as well as specialized ICT solutions providers
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• A broadband island that connects as many Points of Presence as possible (Digital Access Nodes, DANs)
• DANs located in schools but open to the community and running non-proprietary, open source software
• Low cost, thin-client infrastructure (as server maybe a cluster of ‘refurbished’ computers)
• Broadband island connected to the Internet by whatever means possible
• And the cellphones? Great but...
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Connectivity blueprint
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a point of presence is used for training
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a point of presence is used for e-services
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e-commerce can support art and craft
• Applications?
• Software production Centre?
• ICT solution provider?
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• A software house that completes the innovation eco-system built between Rhodes and Fort Hare Universities
• Focused on community-oriented, integrated eServices solutions
• It sees a future in which marginalised, disadvantaged communities are reconnected through practical, co-created ICT software applications and become progressively bigger actors in services and software production.
Objectives
• Move software production in ICT4D to an industrial standard, in terms of architecture and quality
• Build a reference implementation for practitioners in ICT4D
• Start a commercial software house that proves through doing that ICT4D can be a space for business
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TeleWeaver business model
municipality reed house systems DAN
TeleWeaver in a nutshell
• TeleWeaver is an ‘application server’ holding many applications that make sense in the target community
• Each application has a ‘revenue stream’ attached in the form of a pre-agreed contract with an organization that has the need to access the target community
• The revenue stream for each application is generally small, but together the applications will generate a substantial stream
to be more practical...
• An application in TeleWeaver can be used to report births to Home Affairs
• Home Affairs agrees that they will pay a fixed amount per transaction (reporting a single birth) or maybe a monthly fee, independent from the number of transactions
• As soon as a copy of TeleWeaver is licensed and deployed, the contract is activated and Home Affairs pays the holder of the TeleWeaver license (for example, a municipality)
the ‘TeleWeaver dance’
• Step 1: an entity (example: a municipality) picks up the upfront costs and RHS licences TeleWeaver
• Step 2: the entity activates the pre-agreed contracts with organizations that need to access the community where TeleWeaver is deployed (for example, a gov department, a bank, an NGO)
• Step 3: the entity starts receiving a revenue from the installation
game changer! (or what is attractive in RHS proposition)
• TeleWeaver: the entity’s ICT infrastructure moves from a cost centre to an income centre, with the simple effort of sending off the pre-signed contracts that come with the TeleWeaver licence
• RHS offers full turn-key solutions, if required, deploying the Digital Access Node (DAN), the communication link, TeleWeaver, and providing the training needed to activate the DAN
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local revenue streams anyone?
• Yes, TeleWeaver will activate local streams too, through obvious applications such as e-commerce, resale of prepaid coupons, support for b&bs etc
• Although this streams will be, for a period of time, a small source of revenue, it is an additional source nevertheless. More importantly, it will stimulate local economic activity!
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UFH
RU
Telkom CoEs
Siyakhula Living Lab
Siyakhula Living Lab Management Unit
Reed House Systems (software house)
1997
1997
2005
2009
2010
The ICTD eco-system for innovation
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Siyakhula Living Lab
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