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Can Wireless Networks
Bridge the Digital Divide?
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Written for HumaniNet
by Mauro Calvi, CGNet
How Wireless LAN technology
is bringing the Internet to the poor
While stuck in traffic in downtown Guadalajara,
Mexico, during a recent business trip, I noticed the LED
indicator on my handheld computer was flickering. Though
this section of the Mexican city is not what I would consider
a state-of-the art business district, what my Hewlett-Packard
Jornada was telling me was unequivocal: I had come across
one of the thousands of wireless LAN public hotspots being
deployed every day around the globe.
I was unexpectedly connected to the Internet
at the surprising speed of 11 megabits per second, the same
connection speed I have in my office back in Menlo Park,
CA, and certainly faster than my DSL service at home. More
interestingly, I had no idea who was providing me with the
service or why I was not being charged a cent for that privilege.
I asked the taxi driver to pull over so I could check my
email.
Also known as Wi-Fi, or 802.11, Wireless Local
Area Networks (WLANs) are an unexpected byproduct of a well-meaning
government initiative. In 1989, the Federal Communications
Commission assigned the 2.4- and 5-Gigahertz frequency bands
to short-range industrial, scientific and medical applications.
The purpose of the so-called ISM spectrum was to enable
industrial, medical and scientific instruments to share
data wirelessly without having to apply for a government
license. The only restriction: the power of the radio was
to be limited to one Watt in order to minimize radio interference,
a power level sufficient to cover an area about 200 mt.
in radius. Most Western governments followed suit and adopted
similar rules.
What these regulatory bodies did not anticipate
was the landslide phenomenon that the free ISM spectrum
would set in motion. Entrepreneurs, always eager to satisfy
corporations’ need for increased workforce mobility,
were quick to realize that WLANs provided a huge business
opportunity.
Soon, hundreds of companies began to churn
out WLAN equipment. Today, with a $50 card in your laptop,
you can access the Internet at high speed from your office,
home, and thousands of places providing Wireless LAN access.
In 1999, an independent body named WECA was formed and chartered
with ensuring that the 802.11 standard would become truly
universal.
Research firm Dataquest expects that more
than half of all computers sold to enterprises will have
built-in WLAN capabilities by 2006. Cell phones will soon
include 802.11 support, allowing voice, and not just data,
to travel over WLANs when inside an office or at home. 30
million multi-mode wireless chips for access points, laptops
and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) will be shipped next
year, and 100 million over the next 3 years.
Wireless LANs are arguably the most remarkable
innovation since the advent of personal computers in the
1980s and the Internet in the ‘90s, making this sector
one of the few bright spots in an otherwise depressed Information
Technology market.
Unintended consequences
The adoption of WLANs went well beyond the
intended scope of the ISM standard: today schools, universities,
hotels, airport, restaurants, cafes, gas station, theatres,
shopping malls, not to mention millions of homes, have become
wireless “hotspots”, or places where wireless
Internet access is available.
At the hub of every hotspot is a $50-$200
device the size of a desktop telephone set, called an Access
Point. The AP’s radio signal covers an area of approximately
200 meters in radius and is connected to a wired network
(such as a DSL line or other high-speed link). Most homes
use a single AP, while a typical 200-employee office would
need a maximum of 4-5 APs.
In their most advanced versions, APs do not
require a fixed connection to the network: they can simply
communicate with the nearest AP by radio, which in turn
connects to another neighboring AP, and eventually to an
AP with a wired connection to the backbone. These wireless
“routers” form a web of hotspots also known
as a “mesh” network. If equipped with directional
antennas, Access Points can communicate over tens of miles
without violating the legal requirements regarding maximum
radio power, or requiring a government license.
The important benefit of mesh networks is
to provide high-speed Internet connectivity over a wide
geographical area where no wire-line infrastructure is present.
Thanks to Voice-Over-the-Internet technology and to the
advent of WLAN-enabled cell phones, this network can be
used to carry voice traffic, thus eliminating the need to
deploy a traditional cellular network. Again, since they
use an unregulated portion of the radio spectrum, WLANs
do not require cumbersome licensing application processes
or paying costly fees.
Bridging the digital divide
By far the most fascinating impact of WLAN
technology is its potential to bring low-cost connectivity
to the developing world, particularly in rural areas, where
the investments required to develop traditional wire-line
networks can be prohibitive.
Entrepreneurs, governments and charitable
institutions around the world have not failed to take notice:
from China to Madagascar, from Peru to the Philippines,
not a month goes by without the announcement of another
village being connected to the Internet.
What makes WLAN technology so promising as
a tool to bridge the digital divide are a number of factors,
including:
• The high level of standardization
and the huge economies of scale of WLAN hardware manufacturing
have rendered the cost of basic equipment orders of magnitude
lower than previously existing wireless technologies
• The cost of international satellite Internet connections
has dropped almost 70% in the last five years as a result
of competition from fiber networks and the global slump
in demand for communications services. Satellite links are
still the primary way of connecting remote rural areas to
the Internet backbone
• WLANs can be used to bring Internet and voice service
where deploying millions of miles of copper cable or optic
fiber to every office and building would be cost-prohibitive
• Many countries granted the same unlicensed status
to the WLAN radio spectrum as the US. This has further reduced
the capital investment required to create a network, as
well as opened up the field to a multitude of less politically
connected players.
• The cost of solar cells needed to power WLAN equipment
in rural areas without access to grid power has recently
dropped by 50%.
• Most important, rather than being financed by one
or a few private companies, the cost of creating and managing
the network is distributed among a multitude of participants.
Central to the success of mesh WLANs is the fact that, by
buying and operating their own wireless equipment to connect
their offices or homes, end-users themselves finance and
own portions of the network. It is only through this collective
investment model that the huge capital needed to connect
the 50% of the world population living in rural areas can
be made available.
The typical rural village set-up comprises
a satellite station providing a connection to the Internet
backbone. The connection is shared among the community through
a local wireless network connecting a number of buildings.
The set-up requires an initial investment not greater than
$20,000 for the satellite base station equipment, plus a
few hundred dollars for each wireless station (typically
the school, a government office, electric and water utilities
and businesses). The lease of the international satellite
channel represents in most cases the largest financial commitment
for the community, ranging anywhere from $500 to $2000 a
month for a channel serving tens of simultaneous users.

Email, market prices and government
applications
Following are just a few examples of how wireless
connectivity is being used to the benefit of the have-nots
in developing countries:
• Infocentros, a Latin American variation
of the Internet kiosk, are appearing in many Latin American
countries, providing local entrepreneurs with the ability
to sell access to email and market information on the Web,
often in partnership with local micro-financing institutions.
Email appears to be much in demand among the millions of
Latin Americans with relatives overseas, quickly replacing
traditional mail. The local entrepreneurs will often deliver
email printouts directly to the home, sometimes helping
the illiterate by reading the content to them. Electronic
remittances from overseas relatives over the Internet are
also gaining momentum, as they are significantly less expensive
than traditional bank-wire services. Farmers and fishermen
are using international commodity pricing information to
negotiate more effectively with wholesale buyers.
.
• The government of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh
is setting up government Internet kiosks in urban villages
in hope of bringing what they refer to as “electronic
government” to the people. The initiative is aimed
at bypassing the local bureaucracies and expediting the
processing of government applications. The Indian government
has also recently announced a plan to bring fiber into thousands
of villages by the end of 2005, and using wireless LANs
to connect homes and businesses to the fiber termination
point in the village.
• A village in Laos has recently been
awarded a charitable foundation grant to set up a wireless
network. Given the lack of an electricity grid and the difficulty
in using solar power in the middle of the jungle, the village
will use a generator powered by a bicycle and a number of
enthusiastic villagers.
• Wireless ISPs (WISPs) are setting
up shop in Egypt, Eastern Europe, Malaysia and many other
locations, connecting homes and business using commercial
equipment. Because of the highly standardized nature of
the WLAN equipment, a wealth of information is available
on the Internet, making it easier for these local entrepreneurs
to develop the necessary know-how.
• A small Utility Management company
in Kenya is considering using wireless LANs to connect electricity
and water meters in a number of cities and villages.
• Government and non-government Relief
Organizations, such as the World Food Programme, are studying
the feasibility of transitioning their costly emergency
response telecommunications equipment to local authorities
and commercial WLAN infrastructure
• Even in highly developed economies
such as the US, charitable foundations and non-government
organizations are turning to WLANs to provide Internet access
to under-served communities in rural areas. For instance,
libraries and schools in Indian reservations around the
US are being linked to the Internet by satellite and WLANs.
Is the model sustainable?
Are Wireless LANs the key to economic prosperity
for struggling developing economies? Perhaps, but some fundamental
issues suggest that caution is in order:
• Quality of service and security: Who
will control and manage networks that are by definition
owned by millions of individuals and enterprises? Who will
manage radio interference in an unregulated market? Who
will guarantee the right level of data security, privacy,
and quality of service in a shared network model?
• Government regulation: Will governments
in developing countries allow WLAN networks to operate without
licenses? Will they resist the temptation to regulate the
frequency spectrum, or will they cave in to the pressure
of local telecommunications companies wanting to capitalize
on their past investments and preserve their monopolies?

• Business model: What successful economic model will
drive the proliferation of WLANs? Do rural consumers and
businesses in developing nations have the purchasing power
to support the ongoing costs of operating the networks?
There are encouraging signs: companies around
the world are working to improve the service quality and
security of these highly complex, highly decentralized,
self-configuring and self-adapting networks. Countries like
India and the Philippines have recently announced liberal
policies regarding the use of WLAN frequency spectrum, and
many other forward-looking governments, particularly in
Asia, are following a similar approach.
The history of personal computers and the
Internet also shows that when a new technology enjoys such
quick and widespread adoption thanks to the compelling benefits
it brings to businesses and consumers, those that try to
stop the phenomenon will most likely be pushed to the wayside.

Last, but not least, remarkable examples of
entrepreneurial success in impoverished areas, such as Grameen
Telecom in Bangladesh [1], are demonstrating that one can
indeed create profitable telecommunications services even
where few people believed it was possible.
Mauro Calvi is Vice President of Business
Development at CGNET Services International, in Menlo Park,
CA, a company specializing in connectivity solutions for
humanitarian, Digital Divide, biodiversity and Emergency
Response applications. He has published and lectured on
the subject of wireless wide-area networks. His career includes
a number of management positions at Microsoft, Ashton-Tate
and other Information Technology companies.

Additional resources:
[1] “What works: serving the poor profitably”
C.K. Prahalad, Allen Hammond – World Resources Institute,
Digital Dividend (http://www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/serving_profitably.pdf)
[2] “Spanning the Digital Divide: Understanding
and Tackling the Issues.” bridges.org, June 2001 (http://www.bridges.org/spanning/index.html).
[3] “The Global Information Technology
Report 2001-2002: Readiness for the Networked World.”
Geoffrey Kirkman, Managing Editor. Oxford University Press,
March 2002 (http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/gitrr_030202.html).

Article property of and copyrighted by Mauro
Calvi, CGNet Services International

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