Information Society Innovation Fund
Dili is the largest city in Timor Leste and one of
the poorest countries in Asia.
Mobile and fixed phone service is available, but simply too expensive
for the average Timorese.
There is almost no local Internet
infrastructure. For example it is
impossible to send an IP packet from one side of Dili to the other without
sending the packet overseas using a VSAT link or a dedicated point-to-point
wireless link. The cost of
connecting to the Internet via VSAT discourages local Internet content, as all
Internet traffic must be brought from overseas via expensive and slow VSAT
pipes. This is very costly and
discourages local content.
Connectivity is typically provided via small ISPs,
which often distribute packets from a VSAT using a 10- to 20-node, point-to-point
Wifi network. These networks
require tall, expensive, and often unsafe masts. Each ISP re-crosses the same path as neighbouring ISPs which
is a waste of resources and an inefficient use of spectrum.
This project will be one of the first real-world
deployments of the Village Telco system and Mesh Potato hardware in a
developing country. It is a
necessary step to fine-tune and test the Village Telco technology and business
model.
Over the course of 2009, strong links have been forged between Rowetel (in Australia) and FONGTIL (in Timor Leste), and a good understanding of local issues has developed.
FONGTIL has identified a strong need for low-cost telephony
and IP backbone infrastructure in Timor Leste, and it has been involved in an
early stage deployment of Mesh Potato Beta hardware during 2008.
This project will build a 100-node “Village Telco”
mesh network in Dili, Timor Leste.
This will simultaneously provide a low-cost local telephony service and
a metropolitan IP backbone.
The IP backbone will be a public resource, managed by
FONGTIL, such that anyone in Dili can have fair access to the bandwidth. This will provide low-cost access to
local IP traffic; for example, for local call VOIP and local web traffic, or as
a pipe for ISP traffic.
A Village Telco is built from low cost, rugged Wifi
telephony devices (the Mesh Potato). Each Mesh Potato provides a single
telephone landline to the end user, which is connected to other Mesh Potatoes
via a mesh Wifi network. Mesh Potatoes are robust to developing world
environmental conditions (e.g. accidental abuse, weather, static damage, poor
electricity supply) and are designed for low power consumption.
The project will:
Rowetel, the project manager, is an engineering company pioneering in low-cost, open hardware and open software telephony solutions. The Dili Village Telco project is part of an initiative called the Free Telephony Project that was established in 2005. Rowetel is based in Australia and has partnered with FONGTIL, the NGO Forum Timor-Leste, an umbrella organization for national NGOs. FONGTIL comprises 416 national and 98 international NGOs based in Timor Leste. The FONGTIL IT unit has established various initiatives to facilitate access to ICTs in the country, such as the installation of computer repair and Internet access centres around the country, providing training and supporting local content development.
The Village Telco Project is a collaborative initiative to build low-cost community telephone network hardware and software that can be set up in minutes anywhere in the world. No mobile phone towers or landlines are required. The Village Telco uses the latest Open Source telephony software and low-cost wireless mesh networking technology to deliver affordable telephony anywhere.
The project consists of two principal elements: first, a Mesh Potato, which is a low-cost wireless mesh device you can plug a regular phone into; and second, the Village Telco Entrepreneur (VTE) Server which combines network management, upstream voice connectivity, and pay-as-you-go billing management to create a simple system for an entrepreneur or community organization to sustainably deliver voice and Internet services. For more information, please visit www.villagetelco.org.
The Free Telephony Project’s goal is to provide free hardware designs for telephone systems. Both the hardware and software are open sourced. More information is available at http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/
For more information about Rowetel, visit www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk
For more information about FONGTIL, visit www.fongtil.info
Project documentation available at http://dili.villagetelco.org
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