Washington Post carries a long article about how internet access through cellphone (connected to a computer) is making life easier for the people of a village in Bangladesh. Here are some of the uses listed in the article
1. Making sure that a doctor will be available before making a long and expensive trip to the city
2. Make up for the lack of access to books
3. Call relatives abroad using VoIP at dirt cheap rates (11 cents vs $2)
4. Getting married on webcam !!!
These cellphone powered internet centers are being set up by Grameen Phone which is partly owned by Grameen Bank of Muhammad Yunus fame. To the best of my knowledge 3G hasn't arrived in Bangladesh yet. So that means the cellphone based internet can provide dialup speeds at best. I didn't know you could do VoIP or video conferencing over dialup!
Right now a number of initiatives are going on to make computers available at extremely low cost. Assuming atleast one of these initiative will succeed, this story illustrates how a combination of dirt cheap cellular rates and availability of computers can improve the quality of life of people.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Ultra cheap pc from, where else China
Slashdot links to this techfreep article about a $125 PC planned by a company called 'ZhongKe Menglan Electronics Technology Co.' in China. At first look the specifications of this PC look pretty good for the money. Infact (and I am a bit embarassed here) it's almost as good as my old, still very much in use PC.
RAM - 256MB (same as mine)
Hard Drive - 40-60 GB (more than mine)
CPU - Godson-2 800Mhz-1Ghz (mine is a Pentium4 2Ghz)
The CPU ofcourse is the issue in ways more than one. There have been some concerns that it's a rip off of a MIPS chip from MIPS Technologies.
RAM - 256MB (same as mine)
Hard Drive - 40-60 GB (more than mine)
CPU - Godson-2 800Mhz-1Ghz (mine is a Pentium4 2Ghz)
The CPU ofcourse is the issue in ways more than one. There have been some concerns that it's a rip off of a MIPS chip from MIPS Technologies.
"However, the chip’s architecture has gotten attention around the industry for its similarities to the MIPS chip from MIPS Technologies Inc. According to market research group In-Stat, the Godson-2 is about 95-percent compatible with the MIPS R10000, which was introduced in 1995. BLX claims that similarities between the Godson and MIPS are strictly coincidental."
Well, we had heard similar accusations when Huawei and ZTE initially got into the Telecom infrastructure market. I don't see anyone talking about that anymore. So lets see how the CPU part of this saga plays out.
Anyway, back to the PC. Initially it will be priced at $160-$170 and used in schools and government offices in China. It will hit the $125 price tag if the initial rollout goes well and it goes into mass production. The PC will come preloaded with Linux and the free goodies that come with Linux. I wonder if a person who has never used a PC before will find Linux user friendly. My theory is that a lot of 'user-unfriendliness' of Linux can be attributed to our collective addiction to Windows, a problem which a completely new user wont have. But that's just idle speculation. I can't prove anything.
On similar lines I came across some old articles from DQIndia about the Rs10,000(~$220) PC that are being marketed by Xenitis India. The article in June 2005 makes it sound very promising.
"A quick comparison with some of the branded competitors brings out the magnitude of Xenitis' achievement. For an under 10K price tag, Xenitis provides a PC fuelled by a Cyrix 1 GHz chip, with 128 MB RAM; a 30 GB hard disk drive; a 52x CD drive, a floppy drive and a 15 inch color monitor. The software is Red Hat's Enterprise 3 professional version of Linux, which comes on 9 CDs that include the Open Office suite, database, e-mail tools and a browser."
But in another article a few months later it documents the practical problems involved in actually buying such a PC. A good read if you need convincing that just technically reducing the cost of something is not enough. The eco system (suppliers, distributors) to make it available also needs to be in place.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
I am in full 'Kiva'
This post started out in the comments section in response to Kuriakose's comment. But then it got too big :)
Jokes aside, the concept behind Kiva which Kuriakose correctly refers to as the '...attempts to opensource the supply side (where the cash comes from) of microfinance...' is so amazing that I felt it deserved its own post. They partner with microcredit institutions in developing countries, get profiles of credit vetted entrepreneurs from them and then enable the general public to give micro loans to them. Yes, loans not donations. By taking out commercial banks from the money raising part of the microfinance chain, (I hope) their partners can offer better interest rates to the end users. From a donor perspective, this enables people to actually see their money in action and a high probability that they will get their money back (and just lose out on the interest). I know from personal experience with Asha for Education that it's always easy to raise money through Support a Child programs as donors prefer to donate to a real person instead of to anonymous recipients. So I can imagine this program (if it can build trust) having the potential to raise lots of money. But how well it can scale will depend almost entirely on how many honest and able microcredit partners they can tie up with. Even though they are just 2 years old , they already have tie ups in about 12 countries. So that's a pretty impressive start.
The reason I am so excited about Kiva is that it's an example of how technology (in this case internet) can be used to have an real impact (making capital available) on people in the developing world. I plan to sign up as a small donor (or capital provider) just to see how it works. I will report back with details about my experience later.
PS: If you think the subject is cryptic, look up the meaning of Kiva
Jokes aside, the concept behind Kiva which Kuriakose correctly refers to as the '...attempts to opensource the supply side (where the cash comes from) of microfinance...' is so amazing that I felt it deserved its own post. They partner with microcredit institutions in developing countries, get profiles of credit vetted entrepreneurs from them and then enable the general public to give micro loans to them. Yes, loans not donations. By taking out commercial banks from the money raising part of the microfinance chain, (I hope) their partners can offer better interest rates to the end users. From a donor perspective, this enables people to actually see their money in action and a high probability that they will get their money back (and just lose out on the interest). I know from personal experience with Asha for Education that it's always easy to raise money through Support a Child programs as donors prefer to donate to a real person instead of to anonymous recipients. So I can imagine this program (if it can build trust) having the potential to raise lots of money. But how well it can scale will depend almost entirely on how many honest and able microcredit partners they can tie up with. Even though they are just 2 years old , they already have tie ups in about 12 countries. So that's a pretty impressive start.
The reason I am so excited about Kiva is that it's an example of how technology (in this case internet) can be used to have an real impact (making capital available) on people in the developing world. I plan to sign up as a small donor (or capital provider) just to see how it works. I will report back with details about my experience later.
PS: If you think the subject is cryptic, look up the meaning of Kiva
Friday, August 04, 2006
Solar powered Wi-Fi
Uber tech blog GigaOm links to an article in news.com which talks about an effort to make internet access a reality in underdeveloped regions. This project named Green WiFi is being run by a couple of employees from Sun (one former and one current). They have developed a prototype with a grant from the $100 laptop project and are now getting ready for a field deployment in Uttar Pradesh.
At a very high level, enabling internet access comprises of 2 distinct challenges. Having a high bandwidth broadband backbone in place and getting people access to this backbone - the so called last mile problem. The wires that cable companies put, the phone lines that dsl providers use and the wi-fi access that hotspots provide all address the last mile problem. Simple WiFi won't be able to solve the last mile problem for Indian villages are they are usually no where near a broadband backbone. So the Green WiFi project is going to use a series of routers - each connected wirelessly through 802.11b/g (wifi) - to connect the end user to the backbone and hence the internet. Their innovation is that they are coming up with a cheap and robust solar power charged battery set in order to provide power to these routers and more importantly they are coming up with a way to do elegant degradation when the router starts running out of power.
""What we bring to the table is an intelligent charge-controller. We put the router on a diet," Pomerleau said. The controller sits between the battery and the router and regulates power to the router depending on the charge level of the battery and the amount of incoming sunlight."
Absolutely critical for this idea to succeed in Indian villages.
The pilot project in Uttar Pradesh would be able to flesh out the technical abilities and limitations of this model. But the possibility of widespread deployment would depend on how far the internet backbone is from a typical Indian village. The cost of the router has been capped at $200 (Rs. 9000). The news.com report says that the wifi router nodes can be 1kilometer apart. I am not convinced about that being true in real deployments. But anyway quibbles aside, greater the distance from the backbone more the number of routers that have to be used and more the cost. WiMax which has a longer range would be a better fit for this kind of an effort. But we won't be seeing commercial WiMax before late 2007. WiFi is already here. So if this model can bring high speed internet access to atleast those villages which are close to the backbone, that would be a great achievement.
At a very high level, enabling internet access comprises of 2 distinct challenges. Having a high bandwidth broadband backbone in place and getting people access to this backbone - the so called last mile problem. The wires that cable companies put, the phone lines that dsl providers use and the wi-fi access that hotspots provide all address the last mile problem. Simple WiFi won't be able to solve the last mile problem for Indian villages are they are usually no where near a broadband backbone. So the Green WiFi project is going to use a series of routers - each connected wirelessly through 802.11b/g (wifi) - to connect the end user to the backbone and hence the internet. Their innovation is that they are coming up with a cheap and robust solar power charged battery set in order to provide power to these routers and more importantly they are coming up with a way to do elegant degradation when the router starts running out of power.
""What we bring to the table is an intelligent charge-controller. We put the router on a diet," Pomerleau said. The controller sits between the battery and the router and regulates power to the router depending on the charge level of the battery and the amount of incoming sunlight."
Absolutely critical for this idea to succeed in Indian villages.
The pilot project in Uttar Pradesh would be able to flesh out the technical abilities and limitations of this model. But the possibility of widespread deployment would depend on how far the internet backbone is from a typical Indian village. The cost of the router has been capped at $200 (Rs. 9000). The news.com report says that the wifi router nodes can be 1kilometer apart. I am not convinced about that being true in real deployments. But anyway quibbles aside, greater the distance from the backbone more the number of routers that have to be used and more the cost. WiMax which has a longer range would be a better fit for this kind of an effort. But we won't be seeing commercial WiMax before late 2007. WiFi is already here. So if this model can bring high speed internet access to atleast those villages which are close to the backbone, that would be a great achievement.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Cell phones in Indian villages
Businessweek has this article about the growth of cell phones in rural India. Businessweek has a history of gushing over the latest fad in town and this article is part of the India, China series. Since I don't live in a cave I am well aware of the explosion of cellphones in urban India. The extent of this explosion can be gauged from this little statistic from the article.
“…India's mobile phone user base has exploded to 105 million today from 5 million in 2001…”
But the story, as always, had been different in rural India. Since the beginning of this year wireless circles have been abuzz with stories about the $4 billion BSNL mega contract. A chunk of the 60 million GSM lines that BSNL is planning to roll out are meant for underserved rural regions. According to this article other Indian wireless operators are also planning huge expansions.
"...Another major India telecom, Reliance Infocomm, is expected to invest around $550 million through the end of the decade, mainly outside of major urban centers.
Tata Teleservices will spend $214 million this year on infrastructure, network expansion, and transmission, according to CEO Darryl Green. On top of that, Bharti Airtel, India's largest wireless player, will devote $1.8 to $2 billion in 2007 on similar expansions...."
The good news is that call rates are so low in India (2 cents or 90 paise per minute) that wireless service will be within the reach of all but the extremely poor in rural India. Bad news is that handsets are not all that cheap.
"Nokia, for instance, sells about 45 models in India. Yet its biggest seller, accounting for 15% of sales in India, is the basic 1100 model for $44 that is turning heads in villages like Latur. Motorola will launch a handset for under $30 in October. "
Even $30 (Rs.1350) is not an insignificant amount of money. The monthly salaries of instructors at a school funded by DridSankalp are in the Rs.3000 range. So buying a cellphone even at these highly reduced prices would be equivalent to buying moderately expensive furtniture for an engineer in the US. Not something that can be bought on a whim. And these instructors would fall in the rural middle class category. For poorer people even a $30 handset would be extremely expensive. I hope some service provider will be smart and brave enough to provide phones on credit. I also wonder if it would be possible to recycle used handsets from Indian cities for around $10-15 dollars.
Ofcourse, having a cellphone or being able to make a call is not an end in itself. How beneficial will this access to communication be? Apart from the obvious benefit of being able to be in touch with friends and family, can this increased access give rise to new and novel applications completely unique to rural India?
“…India's mobile phone user base has exploded to 105 million today from 5 million in 2001…”
But the story, as always, had been different in rural India. Since the beginning of this year wireless circles have been abuzz with stories about the $4 billion BSNL mega contract. A chunk of the 60 million GSM lines that BSNL is planning to roll out are meant for underserved rural regions. According to this article other Indian wireless operators are also planning huge expansions.
"...Another major India telecom, Reliance Infocomm, is expected to invest around $550 million through the end of the decade, mainly outside of major urban centers.
Tata Teleservices will spend $214 million this year on infrastructure, network expansion, and transmission, according to CEO Darryl Green. On top of that, Bharti Airtel, India's largest wireless player, will devote $1.8 to $2 billion in 2007 on similar expansions...."
The good news is that call rates are so low in India (2 cents or 90 paise per minute) that wireless service will be within the reach of all but the extremely poor in rural India. Bad news is that handsets are not all that cheap.
"Nokia, for instance, sells about 45 models in India. Yet its biggest seller, accounting for 15% of sales in India, is the basic 1100 model for $44 that is turning heads in villages like Latur. Motorola will launch a handset for under $30 in October. "
Even $30 (Rs.1350) is not an insignificant amount of money. The monthly salaries of instructors at a school funded by DridSankalp are in the Rs.3000 range. So buying a cellphone even at these highly reduced prices would be equivalent to buying moderately expensive furtniture for an engineer in the US. Not something that can be bought on a whim. And these instructors would fall in the rural middle class category. For poorer people even a $30 handset would be extremely expensive. I hope some service provider will be smart and brave enough to provide phones on credit. I also wonder if it would be possible to recycle used handsets from Indian cities for around $10-15 dollars.
Ofcourse, having a cellphone or being able to make a call is not an end in itself. How beneficial will this access to communication be? Apart from the obvious benefit of being able to be in touch with friends and family, can this increased access give rise to new and novel applications completely unique to rural India?
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