Personal Telco Project

There is an interesting movement going on in Portland, Oregon and it is all about providing cheaper, and private wireless.

The Personal Telco project is a community based wireless mesh network. The network is a bunch of interconnected wireless routers, or nodes, which interconnect traffic between users and network hop off points to the Internet.

The user connects his wireless router to an external antenna and the mesh technology connects into the community airspace fabric.

These experiments show how the power of community with off the shelf technology can bring link minded enthusiasts together.

Now take this methodology and apply it to a remote community with no internet access by landline. A satellite internet drop can be connected to a village mesh network providing internet access to its members. Take this community and empower them with DataWind or Android tablets and each user now has access on a shared basis that will empower them to learn and share in conversation.

If the village lacks reliable power then wind, solar or water can be used to keep the batteries charged at the mesh hub but also can be used to keep those tablets charged. Soon, a 12 year old will have become the village IT administrator using the internet at night to study for his IT certifications through a MOOC and one day will leave the village an imigrate to another country. He will make money that he cannot have imagined and be able to send money back home to his family. Thats the power of community and technology.

https://personaltelco.net/wiki

http://villagetelco.org/mesh-potato/