South African wireless community networks
Therefore, WUGs provide a fertile ground for new technology and applications that may have large social benefits in informal communities and rural areas of South Africa and neighboring countries.
[5] Major cities such as Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria have launched public-private initiatives to build their own broadband networks to provide cheaper voice and data services.
For example, the city of Tshwane, which includes Pretoria, is testing delivery of broadband Internet and voice services on their new metro-wide fibre-optic network using wireless hot spots to provide ADSL access.
[8] The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa has licensed several small telecoms firms to operate regional networks in remote, under-served areas of the country.
Currently, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service is allowed only in areas where less than five percent of the population have access to a telephone, and WiFi is restricted to use by individuals or organisations within the confines of their own premises.
There are currently four links which interconnect the Jawug network with PTAWUG, the Wireless User Group in Pretoria, to the north of Johannesburg.
The network has a number of towers, with the other highsites located on tall buildings or at private residences in strategic places.
CTWUG maintains good vendor relationships to ensure high quality equipment is used and supplied for all network links.
The group now has about 200 people on the mailing list and about 15 live nodes on the network spanning from Bluff to Umbilo, Morningside, Town, Tollgate and Westville.
In this case, which is currently located in Ocean View outside Cape Town but intends to expand, most users have no other internet access; also, the network hosts many resources in its "cloudlet" server/s, such as user-generated video-sharing applications; such local resources are free to use, while access to the wider internet is on the basis of prepaid vouchers.
Although the city-based community networks are typically run by hobbyists who may be primarily interested in experimenting with technology and avoiding high broadband charges while playing Internet games, they serve also as test beds for more serious projects and training grounds for wireless network engineers that may benefit projects in poor rural and informal communities.
In these communities, wireless mesh networks may have great medical, educational and economic value, giving affordable telephone and internet access when coupled with initiatives such as One Laptop per Child that aim to provide low-cost devices[25] - assuming the regulator continues to remove obstacles to deploying WiFi community networks.
The project is testing if a rural community can take ownership of the network, with a trial community-run WUG near the Kruger National Park in the Mpumalanga Province.
These are small, self-constructed antennas made from locally available material connected to a low-cost WiFi card plugged into a computer.
[32] The project ran into difficulties at first because Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) was illegal in South Africa, even over the UWC Telehealth network.
However Dabba, a telecommunications company, is providing affordable telephone service in Orange Farm through wireless mesh technology.
Dabba has installed several wireless routers that relay signals to an internet connection in a local community centre.
However, the phones average about $100 each and it takes significant technical knowledge and investment to build a network like this, so the model may not work in poorer rural communities.
Dabba is now working with the Shuttleworth Foundation, a non-profit South African charitable organization, in the Village telco project to develop an affordable and easy-to-install telephone system for rural communities.
Dabba (and other companies with a similar model) will provide advice to wireless community network owners and connectivity to the outside world.
