In the 1930s, via the Rural Electrification Administration, electricity went into remote areas of Appalachia and other neglected regions of the United States. Is it time to use OLPC repeater technology to do the same for broadband? What are the technical and regulatory barriers at this point? Could the telecoms be kept at bay—or maybe even bought off in return for a piece of the action?
OK, any mavens on WiFi repeaters who’d care to educate us? Could it be that OLPC-refined WiFi technology, or maybe a WiMax variant, will be almost as significant as $100-$200 laptops?
The e-book angle: Even with caching, forget about networked e-books in truly widespread use if broadband isn’t ubiquitous. Broadband also makes it easier to browse libraries or shop for e-books online. Simply put, always-on broadband is a friend, not an enemy, of e-books even though plain text itself is darn miserly with bandwidth. Hello, John Edwards and other pols who say they’re poverty fighters? If you want a comprehensive, coherent broadband policy that promotes business and education, maybe it’s time to take a good look at what OLPC is up to with the repeaters, not just the laptops. Hey, farms it out to your advisors if you hate the grubby details.
Related: One Cheap Solar 802.11s Mesh Repeater Per Child, in OLPC News. Also see Wikipedia item.
Meraki just introduced a $150 solar-powered Wi-Fi access point, with software designed to manage users’ load on the system.
Meraki is part of MIT so to speak as is OLPC. They are both mesh network platforms. Here is a company pushing for what you ask about with the Meraki: http://www.netequality.com/ These all get at your question: “OK, any mavens on WiFi repeaters who’d care to educate us? Could it be that OLPC-refined WiFi technology, or maybe a WiMax variant.” WiMax is not to compete with mesh but could be used with it. Anyways if you want to to spread coverage to the “last mile” it can be done it just takes people who will push getting it done. The thing which is the missing element which Rural Electrification Administration had and others today don’t is the political will. So I say lead the way and don’t stop until we get there.
http://youarethenetwork.blogspot.com/
I find it difficult to believe this can’t be done in USA. I quote from Karlene Maywald, a member of our state government “The South Australian Broadband Strategy aims for all South Australians to have access to affordable broadband services as a tool for business, research, learning and community life by 2008. South Australia’s regional communities face special challenges because of their small size and geographical separation, and the State Government is strongly supporting projects in all regional areas, to help meet those challenges and provide broadband services to those communities….”
This in a population of just over 1.5 million spread over 983,000 square kilometres. It’s not 2008 yet, so I can’t comment on the success of this plan, but it must at least be possible. Perhaps something your state politicians need to look at?
A dense population makes it cheaper to put two-way cable everywhere (The Netherlands), a scattered population makes it sensible to come up with wireless solutions (Scandinavian countries). Perhaps the US is somewhere in between, making the transactional cost much higher?
Bennett: I need to find out more about Meraki. Really appreciated the link.
Jurd: Thanks for the example.
Branko: Good point, but consider that the OLPC approach is designed for use in rural areas. What’s more more, I don’t see a need to cover every square inch of Alaska. But surely here in the States, Washington can do much more than it has so far.
Thamks,
David
Ah yes, the central government. Here’s a short story.
I studied in Nijmegen, where one of the earliest pilots with cable internet took place (the Telemann project, around 1991 IIRC). The pilot could have been held almost anywhere in the country, since most municipalities had two-way cable, thanks to local government. But that same government –albeit this time on a national level — outlawed any experiments with cable internet; the reason our university could run the pilot was because the campus was private property, and the government had no say over how cables that ran there could be used. (I believe the government’s concern was one of unfair competition, I’d have to look it up.)
Having governments drive innovation can be almost as difficult as having scientists drive innovation. Both groups are almost always eminently equipped to lead the way, but they also almost always have deeply conservative mindsets.
Anyway, I digress.
> Having governments drive innovation can be almost as difficult as having scientists drive innovation.
So the Internet came out of GE and RCA?
But, hey, Branko, I appreciate the concerns you’re raising. Any Rural Wireless Administation would need to be VERY closely monitored to see if it’s really encouraging innovation, as opposed to being a pork barrel for campaign donors. Put the right people in charge, however, and the chances of this would diminish.
Thanks,
David