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Drive-By Internet In Hard-To-Reach Places
oldwindways writes "The BBC reports that in developing nations where it is prohibitively expensive to install the infrastructure for wired internet connections, drive by wireless updates are becoming a popular solution to the demand for internet access. This sounds great for checking news updates, sports scores, and visiting your regular websites, but somewhat limited if you are trying to do basic research and don't know exactly where your search will take you. It is certainly an innovative solution to some of the problems encountered in tackling the digital divide, but what longterm effects might this model have on the development of a communications infrastructure?"
Buses equipped with wi-fi are being used to deliver web content to remote rural villages in the developing world.
They have wi-fi equipped buses in this country too. Actually, since PCI is a standard, you can equip it with a lot more than just that.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
These places typically have huge problems with keeping wired systems going. Poor roads & access make it hard to fix physical breakages. In many areas, copper phone lines get stolen on regular basis for sale as scrap metal. You can't steal the ether.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Ok, I'll admit that was wrong. But seriously, this is not going to do anything but increase the demand for an actual internet connection. I promise, this guy delivering small doses of the internet by bus for a few rupees here and there is only creating a new market where almost none existed.
Sometimes the best solution is to stop wasting time looking for an easy solution.
The local populace do not want this.. things were ok the way they were.. "Woman ! I'm just going to the local internet cafe.. see you in a few hours." Down the road, a few stops at the local shebeens, and the man comes home with a glint in his eye. It's been like this the world over since time began.
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" [William Shakespeare]
Do not underestimate the bandwidth of a bus capable of carrying the entire internet.
liqbase
Best Windows Freeware
As we've proven in this article....
Believe me, if I started murdering people, there would be none of you left.
Remember back when we all wanted to cut down on phone charges while reading and responding to BBS email and the QWK format was developed, and it was the new hotness? I didn't think so.
I'd imagine recycling that kind of app would be pretty useful in situations like this -- an app that runs on a constantly-connected server and every 3/5/10/30 minutes checks for updates to your pre-specified webpages, blogs, newsgroups, email, etc., bundles them all into a zip, and lets you download them in a burst when you get your moment of connectivity; it also processes your uploaded data package which includes such things as configuration changes, outbound emails, blog entries, forum posts, slashdot troll comments, whatever.
Someone invent this. I'd pay for it.
First Post!
Posted by: Mr Indian Villager.
liqbase
This is just like a mobile library, so isn't a new idea, but kudos to the person who made the link between the two.
The only difference is (if you look at that link) North Yorkshire has pimped out, purple buses. Whilst the wi-fi buses are a little more 'make do and mend'.
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
What if you live on Saturn? Drive-by might be your only option.
This might be a great way to test a real world system where one can only get updates from the overmind once a day or so. i.e. if you lived on Jupiter...or further. Say that big hexagon on Saturn is really an eons old structure built by non-humans...everybody and their grandmother is going to want to go up there and check it out. They're still going to want their email...
that all vehicals should have a router and used in a flowing mesh type of network.
Use it as an addition to current infrastructure you could have a signal along any busy road in the world.
Mesh the world, if you put a sign up, put a solar power repeater there.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So in the third world, the internet is a big truck taking sports scores out to the villages. You see, Mr Stevens, you were wrong about those tubes.
Doesn't this remind you about the early networks ? Think about the protocols that were designed for this sort of asynchronous all-terrain exchanges. This bus could be :
- Fidonet node
- NNTP server
- SMTP server
- POP server
- Mirror of many things
Protocols such as Fido and NNTP have been in use in an age of 300 to 9600 bps connexions and tape spool exchanged between sites. They would be right at home in this sort of bus !
It's more like vandalism. They don't take the ether away, they just foul it up.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Every day I get in the queue
(Too much, Magic Bus)
To get on the bus that takes me to you
(Too much, Magic Bus)
I'm so nervous, I just type and smile
(Too much, Magic Bus)
Your server is only another mile
(Too much, Magic Bus)
Thank you, driver, for getting my packets here
(Too much, Magic Bus)
You'll be a forwarder, have no fear
(Too much, Magic Bus)
I don't want to cause no fuss
(Too much, Magic Bus)
But can I buy your Magic Bus?
(Too much, Magic Bus)
Nooooooooo!
I don't care how much I pay
(Too much, Magic Bus)
I wanna drive my bus to the internet each day
(Too much, Magic Bus)
I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it
(You can't have it!)
Throughput and bandwidth every day
Just to drive to my ebay
Throughput and bandwidth each day
'Cause I drive my packets every way
Magic Bus, Magic Bus, Magic Bus
I said, now I've got my Magic Bus
(Too much, Magic Bus)
I said, now I've got my Magic Bus
(Too much, Magic Bus)
I drive my packets every way
(Too much, Magic Bus)
Each time I go a different way
(Too much, Magic Bus)
I want it, i want it, I want it, I want it
Every day you'll see the dust
(Too much, Magic Bus)
As I drive my packets in my Magic Bus
(Too much, Magic Bus)
whats the latency on this kinda thing
reminds me of
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html
And a wireless mesh.
Deleted
Really. Seriously. NOBODY ELSE IS USING THAT METAPHOR?.
Did I just have an original thought? I thought they were all taken.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
This is a similar initiative in Sri Lanka but uses a three-wheeled motorbike, or 'tuktuk', one of the favoured forms of transport in that part of the world. A mobile phone is used for on-demand internet connectivity. Loudspeakers and a projector allow for a whole village to access the one computer and it also features an FM transmitter and radio 'studio' for mobile production and broadcasting of community radio. www.etuktuk.org
I can hear grandpaw telling his kids in 2050:
"In my day, we had 3 day ping times, and we liked it!"
Like that tiny area in the middle of your back, right between your shoulder blades.
Karma police, arrest this man. He talks in math. He buzzes like a fridge. He's like a detuned radio.
....it would be cheaper just to fly first class to Redmond waving plastic than to download that Vista torrent.
I really dont know how is this going to help village people ?
:)
There is hardly any place in India that is not covered by GSM or CDMA2000 network.
Want to send receive emails ? Just go to your local mobile shop and get yourself a cheap Rs 900( almost $19 ) CDMA mobile, and you can send receive text emails.
Even for connecting your PC to the internet, USB CDMA modem is a much better option IMO.
My grand parents live in a remote village. There's no road, no post office, no telephone exchange, no cable operator. But they can still enjoy watching 100 channels on there DTH, and surf the internet using there USB CDMA2000 modem
If _they_ can be online, i think anyone can be online in India..:)
But what will they do when the tubes get full?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
and medicine. I would guess that putting food on the table and keeping healthy are the things people in developing nations need. Its like the 'internet gap'; some of the people in the U.S. who don't have access to the internet need more important things like food and shelter. Maybee some affordable health care? Just a thought.
And to think people complain about dial-up! When was the last time your packets had to stop to allow a sacred cow to cross the road?!
"Community satellite feed, then?"
Infrastructure costs might be a problem - cost of a satellite dish for each location, associated hardware, plus need for power means either renewables power generation unit like solar power for batteries or a diesel generator. Very costly if you want to supply a thousand or so villages. A friend of mine worked in rural Cambodia and we got to use the laptops and have electric lights for a couple of hours in the evening when they fired up the generator in the yard.
I first read about this idea several years ago, but haven't been able to find out what happened after those first experiments with a motorbike. Attaching the system to a bus is a stroke of genius.
The internet here apparently is a big truck that you dump stuff on, and not a series of tubes.
Anybody else miss the days before Cantor and Siegel?
'nuff said.
http://www.globetel.net/
This company and several others are working to make wireless internet access for wide areas available and it's particularly suited to developing countries where they don't have a wired infrastructure already like the US does.
simple, fast homepage with your links: http://www.ngumbi.com/
... and a series of trucks too
ITS NOT A DUMB TRUCK...
(but it CAN be a bus)
lol
Quick! Donate your old Pringles cans and 802.11b cards!
No, I will not work for your startup
"To get on the bus that takes me to you" 10 syllables
"I wanna drive my bus to the internet each day" 14 syllables.
Lame.