Le Monde 2

THE NET AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Paris, November 18, 2006 (English Translation)

Internet? A multitude of information accessible to all… but how does one connect if one has neither a telephone, nor electricity? New and original solutions have been dreamt up to enable the most disadvantaged and isolated people to access the network.

- by Claire Ulrich

THE POSTMAN PASSES BY AT 11 O'CLOCK

Real time communication is not the first concern of villagers that have neither electricity nor computers. But they too wish to take advantage of Internet services. Based on this insight, six young people from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have invented and patented a DataMules technology (literally meaning “mules of information”) for rural areas. The “Internet Postmen” of their Indian company, DakNet (www.unitedvillages.com) make their rounds by bike, truck, bus or boat with a short-range Wi-Fi antenna and a hard disk on board. In the villages that are served, a solar-powered computer and a Wi-Fi antenna sit enthroned in an “Internet kiosk”. For a few rupees, the villagers come everyday to drop off their emails, their files to be transmitted, their Google search requests, and even pre-recorded telephone messages. When the postman arrives, he transfers the contents of the kiosk onto his hard disk via Wi-Fi radio waves, and delivers the files brought back from the city using the same system.

Upon his return to his office, he will deliver the contents of his saddle-bag to recipients via his high-speed connection.

The highly economical service of prerecorded telephone messages sent using Internet telephony has proven to be a great success, to such an extent that in certain villages of Orissa (Central-Eastern India), the Internet postman passes by three times a day.

In Cambodia, 150 schools also utilize this service, which is infinitely cheaper than a satellite connection. Rural areas of Costa Rica, Rwanda, and Paraguay are also served. DakNet does not receive any subsidies. The founders are determined to single-handedly build a profitable enterprise by allowing intermediaries to make a small profit on the sale of their DakNet prepaid cards or to make a living as a kiosk-keeper, a postman or a technician.