Mobile phones are the only connection to the Internet that people in many parts of the world will ever have. But a phone is not enough to connect the unconnected; network infrastructure must also be in place. In rural areas that will never return the investment needed to deploy traditional infrastructure, new models of connectivity are emerging.
Spectrum bands 824-849 MHz and 869-894 MHz, historically shared by Mexico and the United States near their border, are now being used to bring wireless service to rural parts of Mexico. Rhizomatica, described by some as a “pirate network,” used Indiegogo to raise funds to purchase used base stations and reverse engineer them to create open-source cell sites. The company just installed its 10th site in Mexico.
Open-source cellular networks have been marketed to rural parts of the U.S. as well. Range Networks raised money to bring cell service to rural Americans through a software-defined open-source network, but the founder of that company has moved on to another venture.
In Mexico, communities are pooling their resources to raise funds to bring cell sites to their villages. According to Wired, towns pay Rhizomatica roughly $6,000 for the network equipment, and another $2,000 to have the Rhizomatica team install it. So far, Rhizomatica is not taking on the service provider role in the communities it serves, so once the equipment is up and running service can cost very little. In Oaxaca, Rhizomatica’s network is connected to that of a low-cost voice over IP provider call Protokol.
Rhizomatica was founded by Peter Bloom, a social entrepreneur who first became aware of the inequalities in mobile data access when he was living in Nigeria. He tried to help Nigerians create a mobile mesh network, in which mobile devices connect directly to one another instead of through a base station.
Bloom abandoned the mesh architecture in favor of open-source base stations, but mesh networks for rural Africa continue to generate discussion. When British operator EE started using antennas made by Parallel Wireless to create a mesh network for rural communities in the U.K., advocates for African consumers began encouraging Parallel Wireless to find an African carrier ready to invest.
