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The idea to connect the rural areas of developing countries through WiFi by using the existing transportation infrastructure was conceived during a class project at MIT in 2001. "We were looking to leverage existing transportation infrastructure in rural areas of developing countries to create a zero-cost, store-and-forward "drive-by WiFi" network that can bridge the digital divide and provide 2bn villagers with a digital identity in a commercially viable way," says Amir Alexander Hassan, Founder & CEO, United Villages, the company behind the initiative.

Explaining the initiative, Hassan says the villagers access the services through a village kiosk that is run by a local entrepreneur who is trained in using the PC and deliver the services. "Most importantly, the kiosk operator either has some grid-based electricity or has solar panels and a UPS power-backup." For instance, in Cambodia, the company has over 100 villages that are completely off the grid and rely 100% on solar power. In those villages the PCs can only run for about 5 hours using the solar powered batteries, so a very low-power WiFi access point is used that plugs into the kiosk PC over Ethernet and remains on 24/7 so that the MAP (mobile access point) can transfer data to and from the kiosk when it drives by even if the PC is off.

Technology Used
Interestingly, FC Kohli, founder of TCS, and a United Villages Advisory Board member, coined the name for this technology: "DakNet". Elaborating on the technology Hassan says, a proprietary WiFi device, a "mobile access point" is installed on a vehicle that is already traveling to and from the villages everyday.

This MAP is wired into the vehicle battery and an antenna is secured on the roof. The company recruits and trains entrepreneurs to operate kiosks installed with WiFi antennas along the vehicle's route where villagers can go to send and receive emails, SMS, voicemails, web searches, and take advantage of other locally-relevant products and services. When the vehicle with the MAP drives by each kiosk, it automatically picks up all of the kiosk's outgoing data and drops off all incoming data at wireless broadband speeds such that can be transferred approximately at 50MB in the 3 minutes (on average) that the vehicle is in range. The MAP does this for 10 kiosks per route on an average and then when it comes within range of either a cellular data network or a WiFi network with a real-time Internet connection back in the nearest town, it transfers all that data for and from the kiosks to and from the Internet.

DakNet is already benefiting thousands of villagers in India, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Paraguay. Since the villagers are extremely price sensitive the company had to be extremely sensitive with regards to pricing of services. "We believe, therefore, that the most compelling evidence and reliable metric for our technology's positive impact is the amount of prepaid cards that we sell to our customers, which represents the value of the efficiencies created by the services that we offer," says Hassan.

The company offers communication services like email, SMS, voicemail, and web browsing as well as value-added, locally relevant services including job searches, travel bookings, agricultural queries, health queries, matrimonial queries and eCommerce. The villagers can even buy and sell products (books, medicines, crafts, fertilizers, seeds, cosmetics, music) through the kiosks that are delivered to them on the same vehicles that transports their data.

The India Angle
United Villages although is presently only operating in Orissa, Hassan adds that he plans to scale up to over 1,000 villages in Orissa and Rajasthan within the next 12 months. The company is working in villages like Kalapathar, Konark, Patharchakra, Fatehgarh and Kantilo to name a few. Talking about the responses, Hassan says: "The response from investors, partners, and our customers in India have all been positive. One of our primary metrics is our Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), which is currently at 17% above our targets in India." Attributing the success to his customer and the ability to listen, he says they have been able to quickly adapt their services to meet customer demands. "For instance, we had never thought of selling products through our kiosks, but then one of our customers asked if he could purchase a book through the kiosk, and e-Shop was born. Then it only took us about two months to develop and deploy it," he adds.

Looking to provide for 2 bn villagers across China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Brazil with a digital identity, United Villages plans to set up 90,000 DakNet Service Providers throughout rural India through 100 State Offices in the next four years.

Future Plans
The company is presently engaged in expanding their network in Orissa and establishing operations in Rajasthan. "We plan to scale to 90,000 villages in India by 2012 through 100 state offices that each reaches 900 village kiosks," says Hasson.

The US-based parent company is also in the process of setting up a similar subsidiary in China and plans to establish subsidiaries in seven other countries with the largest underserved rural populations.

Even though their model compliments various government-related initiatives, the company presently has no intentions to rely on government funding. "We would like to create a channel to and from rural communities that governments can also use to continue to develop stronger relationships with the communities," Hassan believes.

Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in

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