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This presentation by Prof Alfredo Terzoli is entitled “A model for sustainable broadband penetration in poor rural and peri-urban communities”. Its synopsis and purpose are as follows: Rhodes and Fort Hare Universities have been active in ICT for Development for many years, through the two Telkom Centres of Excellence in Telecommunication hosted in their Computer Science departments (www.coe.ru.ac.za; www.coe.ufh.ac.za). From this experience has risen a model that would allow poor communities to be part of the information society, from which they have been up to now essentially excluded. The presentation focuses on this model, detailing what parts have been implemented and tested and what still needs on-the-ground testing. Our conviction, however, is that the entire model will work well and will make possible for broadband to be rolled out in South Africa to finally arrive on a large scale and at very low, or zero cost in poor rural and peri-urban areas. Besides illustrating how the big puzzle of real broadband distribution to the entire population is made possible, we would like to see how an appropriate state entity can help us transform this model into a large scale roll out.
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A model for sustainable broadband in poor communities
Prof Alfredo Terzoli
Rhodes and Fort Hare Universities
National Treasury
Pretoria, June 14 2012
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How can we make possible real & empowering ICT deployment
in marginalized / disadvantaged areas?
The puzzle
Why is it not working?
• the cost of ICT infrastructure is too high to be supported only by the resources in marginalized areas
• the applications that are relevant in this context are just a handful and rarely move beyond the proof of concept
• the expertise of standard ICT solution providers is at best inadequate
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What is needed?
• something that reverses the classic telco equation: the resources to support the local infrastructure have to come from the outside, rather then from the inside
• a way to maximize the utilization of any ICT infrastructure
• real, well organized software production centres, with good current software engineering practices, as well as specialized ICT solutions providers
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• A broadband island that connects as many Points of Presence as possible (Digital Access Nodes, DANs)
• DANs located in schools but open to the community and running non-proprietary, open source software
• Low cost, thin-client infrastructure (as server maybe a cluster of ‘refurbished’ computers)
• Broadband island connected to the Internet by whatever means possible
• And the cellphones? Great but...
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Connectivity blueprint
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a point of presence is used for training
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a point of presence is used for e-services
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e-commerce can support art and craft
• Applications?
• Software production Centre?
• ICT solution provider?
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• A software house that completes the innovation eco-system built between Rhodes and Fort Hare Universities
• Focused on community-oriented, integrated eServices solutions
• It sees a future in which marginalised, disadvantaged communities are reconnected through practical, co-created ICT software applications and become progressively bigger actors in services and software production.
Objectives
• Move software production in ICT4D to an industrial standard, in terms of architecture and quality
• Build a reference implementation for practitioners in ICT4D
• Start a commercial software house that proves through doing that ICT4D can be a space for business
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TeleWeaver business model
municipality reed house systems DAN
TeleWeaver in a nutshell
• TeleWeaver is an ‘application server’ holding many applications that make sense in the target community
• Each application has a ‘revenue stream’ attached in the form of a pre-agreed contract with an organization that has the need to access the target community
• The revenue stream for each application is generally small, but together the applications will generate a substantial stream
to be more practical...
• An application in TeleWeaver can be used to report births to Home Affairs
• Home Affairs agrees that they will pay a fixed amount per transaction (reporting a single birth) or maybe a monthly fee, independent from the number of transactions
• As soon as a copy of TeleWeaver is licensed and deployed, the contract is activated and Home Affairs pays the holder of the TeleWeaver license (for example, a municipality)
the ‘TeleWeaver dance’
• Step 1: an entity (example: a municipality) picks up the upfront costs and RHS licences TeleWeaver
• Step 2: the entity activates the pre-agreed contracts with organizations that need to access the community where TeleWeaver is deployed (for example, a gov department, a bank, an NGO)
• Step 3: the entity starts receiving a revenue from the installation
game changer! (or what is attractive in RHS proposition)
• TeleWeaver: the entity’s ICT infrastructure moves from a cost centre to an income centre, with the simple effort of sending off the pre-signed contracts that come with the TeleWeaver licence
• RHS offers full turn-key solutions, if required, deploying the Digital Access Node (DAN), the communication link, TeleWeaver, and providing the training needed to activate the DAN
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local revenue streams anyone?
• Yes, TeleWeaver will activate local streams too, through obvious applications such as e-commerce, resale of prepaid coupons, support for b&bs etc
• Although this streams will be, for a period of time, a small source of revenue, it is an additional source nevertheless. More importantly, it will stimulate local economic activity!
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UFH
RU
Telkom CoEs
Siyakhula Living Lab
Siyakhula Living Lab Management Unit
Reed House Systems (software house)
1997
1997
2005
2009
2010
The ICTD eco-system for innovation
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Siyakhula Living Lab
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