[governance] A 50-Watt Cellular Network

Wed Feb 10 14:20:54 EST 2010

VNL's present focus appears to be cellular telephone services while Village
Telco's interests lie in Wifi / mesh networking.

If these disruptive technologies are used to provide Internet Access
solutions, there is a possibility of solutions beyond telecom dependent
networking.

Village Telco's business model (of retaining profits for rural and informal
settlements rather than feeding a telco) is an indication that
telco-independent infrastructure and business models are feasible.

Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
http://www.isocmadras.com

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 6:54 PM, McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:

> Compare this with the village telco model (www.villagetelco.org),
> where profits are kept in rural and informal settlements instead of
> all going to a telco.
>
> Mesh potato beta unit draws 2.47 Watts at 12.3 Volts with radio on,
> phone on hook, Ethernet and Batman running (3 nodes), ssh remote shell
> connected via wireless. When the phone is off hook the power
> consumption increases to 3.26 Watts.
>
> Running gear on sunshine is nothing new either, but this may be the
> 1st crack at mass production of fully contained solar systems.
>
> --
> Cheers,
>
> McTim
> "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
> route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 3:57 PM, Yehuda Katz <yehudakatz at mailinator.com>
> wrote:
> > A 50-Watt Cellular Network
> > Solar-powered base stations can link up remote rural areas.
> > By David Talbot | Wednesday, February 10, 2010
> >
> > Art. Ref.:
> >
> http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=24511&channel=communications&section=#
> >
> > Print:
> >
> http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=24511&channel=communications&section=#
> > -
> >
> > An Indian telecom company is deploying simple cell phone base stations
> that
> > need as little as 50 watts of solar-provided power. It will soon announce
> plans
> > to sell the equipment in Africa, expanding cell phone access to new ranks
> of
> > rural villagers who live far from electricity supplies.
> >
> > Over the past year, VNL, based in Haryana, India, has reengineered
> traditional
> > cellular base stations to create one that only requires between 50 and
> 120
> > watts of power, supplied by a solar-charged battery. The components can
> be
> > assembled and booted up by two people and mounted on a rooftop in six
> hours.
> >
> > One such station--dubbed a "village station"--can handle hundreds of
> users.
> > Groups of such village stations feed signals to a required larger VNL
> base
> > station within five kilometers. In turn that larger station, which is
> also
> > solar-powered, relays signals to the main network. The village station
> can turn
> > a profit even if customers spend on average only $2 a month on the
> service,
> > instead of the $6 required to make traditional systems cost-effective,
> the
> > company says.
> >
> > "We've scaled down the cost, the energy, and the equipment so that almost
> > anybody can deploy it," says Rajiv Mehrotra, VNL's CEO. "It lends itself
> to
> > many business models that can serve the bottom of the pyramid," a
> reference to
> > the roughly 1.5 billion rural people who do not have access to
> electricity
> > grids around the world.
> >
> > To date, some 50 VNL base stations have been installed in the Indian
> state of
> > Rajasthan, introducing thousands of people to cell phone service for the
> first
> > time. An African rollout is imminent, the company says, without
> elaborating.
> > The initial batch of 50 stations supports only voice calls, not text or
> data, a
> > decision mainly based on the fact that many of the new users may not be
> able to
> > read or write.
> >
> > Besides enabling basic communication, cell phones can provide enormous
> > financial opportunities for rural people, especially if those people
> adopt
> > services that provide banking and lending via cell phone. More than half
> of
> > India's 1.1 billion people lack any access to basic financial services,
> and
> > instead pay usurious rates to local loan sharks. Furthermore, while
> > microlending can lift people from poverty, only about 150 million people
> > worldwide use such services. Expanded cell networks, together with
> banking
> > programs geared to the rural poor, could change all of that.
> >
> > The base station rollouts are "incredibly empowering for the world's
> remote and
> > low-income masses," says Valerie Rozycki, head of strategic initiatives
> at
> > mChek, a mobile-payment platform based in Bangalore that is unconnected
> with
> > VNL.
> >
> > Expanding cell networks in many rural areas comes down to the
> availability of
> > sufficient electricity to power base stations. Existing off-the-grid base
> > stations in India require expensive diesel generators. "The cost is
> substantial
> > enough to make many rural markets unprofitable and therefore unwired,"
> says
> > Ethan Zuckerman, cofounder of Global Voices, an aggregator and promoter
> of
> > blogging worldwide. "Solutions that reduce the cost of building a base
> station
> > are helpful, and those that reduce the costs of powering a base station
> are
> > crucial."
> >
> > Russell Southwood, CEO of Balancing Act, a London-based telecom and
> Internet
> > consultancy focused on Africa, says low-energy, self-sufficient solutions
> will
> > be key to expanding cellular access further in the developing world.
> "Energy
> > costs are particularly high, as [base-station] sites often have two
> generators
> > and some have three months' supply of fuel," he says. "Anything that cuts
> fuel
> > costs is bound to be attractive to operators, and it's also a more
> sustainable,
> > green approach to communications."
> >
> > But while VNL has optimized its unit for rural areas, it is not the only
> > company making low-cost, low-power base stations. "We are seeing a trend
> toward
> > commoditization" in the cellular industry, says Ray Raychaudhuri,
> director of
> > WinLab, a wireless research laboratory at Rutgers University. "Where it
> was
> > traditionally vertically integrated, you are seeing that break down into
> > something that looks more like a Wi-Fi architecture, where you can buy a
> box
> > and install it."
> >
> >
> > Article Links:
> >
> > Rajiv Mehrotra, CEO, Haryana, India
> > http://www.vnl.in/
> >
> > Valerie Rozycki, mChek
> > http://main.mchek.com/
> >
> > Ethan Zuckerman, cofounder of Global Voices
> > http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/
> >
> > Russell Southwood, CEO of Balancing Act:
> > http://www.balancingact-africa.com/about.html
> >
> > Ray Raychaudhuri, director of WinLab
> > http://www.winlab.rutgers.edu/
> >
> >
> > Copyright Technology Review 2010.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > -30-
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