Experiences, challenges and lessons from rolling out a rural WiFi mesh network

Authors:
Carlos Rey-Moreno;Zukile Roro;William D. Tucker;Masbulele Jay Siya;Nicola J. Bidwell;Javier Simo-Reigadas
Affiliations:
University of Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa;University of Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa;University of Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa;TransCape, Mankosi Community, Ngqeleni, South Africa;CSIR-Meraka, Pretoria and NMMU, Port Elizabeth, South Africa;Rey Juan Carlos University, Fuenlabrada, Spain
Venue:
Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Symposium on Computing for Development
Year:
2013

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Abstract

The computing for development community knows that technology interventions involve consideration of social, technical and environmental factors. Research into WiFi solutions has fallen off as ubiquitous mobile solutions penetrate even the deepest rural communities worldwide. This paper argues that the latest wave of WiFi mesh networks offers benefits that traditional top-down WiFi and mobile networks do not. In addition, we propose ethnographic and participatory methods to aid the effective rollout of mesh inverse infrastructure with and for a given community. This paper describes and then analyzes a mesh for voice rollout within a situated context. We explain how to conduct informed community co-design and how to factor in local socio-political concerns that can impact on the design, rollout and subsequent maintenance of community-based wireless mesh networks. While we have not yet analyzed baseline and initial usage data, we do have new lessons to offer.