Rural Wireless Broadband AccessThe digital divide between the haves and have-nots is nowhere wider than between the rural and urban populations. Chronic underinvestment leading to poor infrastructure in remote and rural areas is one major reason for this. In order to bridge this digital divide and provide the connectivity needed for economic growth, governments as well as non-governmental organizations are stepping to fill this void by using wireless technologies that allow them to leapfrog into the information age. Mobile phones instead of fixed ones and wireless networks in place of expensive cable and ADSL/Cable allow rapid connectivity without the need to wait for infrastructure to catch up.
The Byrraju Foundation, a well known Indian non-profit organization successfully completed a project that connected several rural villages for E-Governance services. In a project that attracted the attention and support of the President of India, His Excellency, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the network will be used for education, providing citizen services as well as medical care.
In another deployment that was featured on BBC, several remote Nepalese villages in the Himalayan mountains used smartBridges radios in a wireless network that serves as their sole communications means to each other and the outside world. With this network, villagers at the local clinic will be able to communicate with the nearest hospital via VoIP and video conferencing.
