The explosive growth of telecommunication technology and the Internet have opened up access to information in an
unprecedented way. However, it has also accompanied a widening digital divide owing to which a large part of the world’s population is untouched by the information economy. The ‘digital divide’, signifying the millions who do not have access and the capability to use modern information technology, such as the telephone, television, or the Internet, is an uncomfortable truth that co-exists with the most miraculous of strides in the information technology horizon.

There are an estimated 429 million people online globally, but even this staggering number is small when considered in context.

For example, of those 429 million, 41% are in North America. Also, 429 million represents only 6% of the world’s entire population. In the words of United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, "Our mission should be to ensure access as widely as possible. If we do not, the gulf between the "haves" and the "have-nots" will be the gulf between the technology-rich and the technology-poor."

It seems that the answer to bridging, even if in not so perfect terms, the digital divide is to take a hard look at the architecture of hardware that can serve the needs of the excluded.

Bridging the divide in India
"We have just seen the beginning of the new millennium. Humanity has never had such great opportunities to access and exchange as much information as it will be the case in this millennium. But the key to effective utilization of the available information lies in it reaching the maximum number of people. If we succeed in making access to information ubiquitous, we may hope to get a world of more enlightened, perhaps happier and certainly wealthier citizens. If we don’t succeed, if the opportunities will only be used by the elite, while the major part of the world population watches (or revolts!), we will get a society for the few. This must not happen. We have to close the information gap by taking proactive steps towards bridging the digital divide. Specifically with reference to India, it is universally accepted that a vast digital divide exists in the country.

With a telephone penetration level of around 4%, there is a crying need to provide communication facilities and access to the common man. It is also evident that the challenge lies in providing access to rural India, as nearly 70% of India’s billion people live in small towns and villages. It is this challenge that n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd. has taken to heart," says Ameet Nivsarkar of n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd (www.n-logue.co.in; ameet.nivsarkar@n-logue.com). He further remarks, "There are ample number of tools available for enabling ICTs in the underdeveloped sector, but there is lack of a concentrated effort on a large scale."

Inadequate infrastructure, coupled with lack of financial resources are fundamental bottle-necks in poorer countries and therefore, the design, development and large-scale deployment of cheaper and locale-friendly technologies is the real answer.

Essentially, therefore, technology solutions for the large majority in India, be it computing or connectivity technology solutions, should be innovative with minimum costs incurred on R & D, have scalability and the competency to penetrate into each of the 600,000 villages. Dreamers like Rajesh Jain, MD of Netcore Solutions (www.emergic.org; rajesh@indiaworld.co.in), who have with great penchant explored technology options for rural India, feel that emergent technologies are the only answer—where technology is bottom-up, and the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.

Perhaps the greatest nurturer of the digital divide is the cost factor. Pricing needs to be redefined keeping in mind the clientele the technology is catering to. Costs have to be a fraction of what urbanites are used to paying. In the arena of low-cost computing based technology solutions in India, worthy of mention would be the efforts of Netcore Solutions which is working to lower the cost of the computer to make computing affordable. Thin Client-Thick Server Computing being offered by Netcore is modelled on making older, lower-configuration PCs work off more powerful new computers. The solution lies in making the computers discarded by the developed markets into thin clients. These clients don’t need a hard disk or CD-ROM drive; they just need the bare minimum processing power and memory to run a windowing server (like the X Server). Essentially, the recycled PCs become graphical terminals, which connect to "thick servers". All computing and storage happens on these servers. The ‘thick server’ can actually be the latest desktop system, with enhanced memory and processing power. The PC will run totally on open source software that cuts out licence fees. The computers are available at an extremely affordable cost of Rs.5000. Rajesh Jain believes that "Technology is essential to bridge the digital divide. Yet, most technology has been priced in dollars, putting it beyond the reach of a large number of businesses and consumers in emerging markets like India. The computer, which is the lynch-pin of an economy, is still seen as a luxury by many." Netcore is currently exploring the possibility of partnerships with cable operators to create a server-centric computing environment.

Appropriate applications: Fuel for cheap hardware ‘Cheap hardware for what’ is a question pertinent to any discussion about remote contexts. In fact, for rural India, the use of PDAs in micro-finance is emerging as one key area. The backbone of the Hyderabad-based Swayam Krishi Sangam’s (www.sksindia.com; vikram@ sksindia.com) micro-finance program has been the deployment of state-of-the-art technology in its operations. In 2000-01, SKS developed a computerized Management Information System (MIS), called SKS MAPS (monitoring, accounting, portfolio and smartcards) to process the myriad savings and loan transactions that occur every year and to present them in a form that management can use for decision-making. The smartcard project is a project that involves using smartcards and palm pilots at the village level. Smartcards automate village-level transactions and the interface between the village, branch office, and head office. The application developed for a hand-held terminal (palm pilot) is linked to both the Portfolio Tracker and Accounts modules at the branch level. Each day, field staff automatically downloads collection sheets onto their palm pilots. At the village level, only those transactions that vary from the expected amount collected or disbursed require a field entry update. Much like the Portfolio Tracker, all fields are precalculated and their expected values stored. Instead of using manual passbooks, client smartcards are inserted into a smartcard reader attached to the palm pilot, enabling both the field staff and client to benefit from a one time transaction entry process that writes to the field staff terminal and the client smartcard simultaneously. When the field staff returns to the head office, they upload and synchronize data from the palm pilot into the Portfolio Tracker module with the touch of a button. Once approved by the branch manager, the transaction is completed with one click. The project has advantages in the forms of lowering delivery costs, reducing the scope of error and fraud, enhancing the speed and efficiency of the MIS and also providing flexible financial services in the future. SKS has installed the system in all of its branches.

Similarly, Web Ezee Technologies (www.web-ezee.com), an IT company addressing the market’s need for low cost internet access devices and hand held terminals for data collection has come up with Data-Vision, a low-cost hand held terminal, priced at Rs 6000. The compact hand-held unit operates on a re-chargeable battery and provides the operator with a simple, easy to use interface. Data-Vision offers an application in micro finance and the localization of services in rural and remote areas. It was field tested in Dhan Foundation’s project at the grassroots in Kanakpura taluk, and performed to the satisfaction of the organization. Data Vision is being used to manage the financial transactions in Dhan’s micro-credit activities with poor rural women. Individual members have been provided with smart cards that serve as electronic passbooks. Future plans of Dhan include creation of state of the art MIS and the use of CDMA technology cell phones connected to Data Vision for quick transfer of data, for its micro-credit activities. Dhan also has experimented with the iStation, a device that offers e-mail connectivity at the plug of a phone line through proprietary software and a linked E-mail service (www.inablers.com). The product is designed for home use as well as installation in public access telephone booths. Various models of the iStation are priced between Rs 5,995 and Rs 7,995, with an annual subscription of Rs 1,200. With servers set up in Bangalore, Mangalore and Dharwad, e-mail services are available throughout Karnataka. People all over Karnataka can communicate with the rest of the world through e-mail at the cost of a local call. The service has now been introduced in Chennai.

Launched in the year 2001, the Simputer (Simple, inexpensive, multi-lingual computer) (www.picopeta.com; chandru@picopeta.com) is a small hand-held device, which can read a smart card, and also has advanced audio and text processing capabilities in several Indian languages, was designed and developed with the aim of reaching out to a non-elite audience in developing countries. The Simputer is designed to be easy to operate, reliable, rugged and to run on easily obtained AA batteries. A built-in modem makes it possible to collect information and send out messages through the Internet. Villages beyond the reach of phone lines can send and receive data through the smart cards. It is now being manufactured in small prototype batches, and field-tested in large grassroots projects of the government like in Chhattisgarh, for education. PicoPeta has recently deployed Simputers in various parts of Karnataka, as part of Bhoomi, a major initiative by the Karnataka Government to automate the process of land records procurement. The latest software that PicoPeta has developed for its handhelds is the Malacca interface with one space interface to sight, touch, and audio; integrated access to a smartcard reader/writer, transparent and secure operation of remote applications and annotation of screen pages. One of the future applications of the Simputer is for the Indian postal system, to be used by mail carriers who handle money orders. A villager could send money through a smart card, plugged into the mail carrier’s Simputer, for delivery to a relative on the other side of the country, downloaded to the recipient’s smartcard. This would eliminate sending money orders through the mail, where they are often lost or stolen. The Indian government is also interested in the Simputer for collecting reliable and timely information on agricultural production, a process now weighed down by inaccurate and slowly gathered paper documents. Health care agencies in South Africa want to develop a small ultrasound monitor that could be plugged into the Simputer for tracking foetal development among pregnant women in rural settlements.

Appropriate technology solutions and innovations that fit well in rural or under-served situations need mediators like the government who can make it a reality. Non-government, voluntary organizations can also play a catalysing role. However, cheap hardware may not necessarily be an appropriate solution unless it comes with software that is bundled along for specific uses. There are some issues about appropriate applications such as costs of developing software that will make cheap hardware a worthwhile investment; intellectual property aspects that might prevent free dissemination of good applications; the absence of a coordinating agency at the national or state levels for large-scale use and replication etc. While the Simputer is certainly a landmark in low-cost, people-oriented technology, tailor-making applications that will run on it still means costs involved in software development. For non-government, development agencies, and indeed for governments strapped for funds, the use of cheap hardware accompanies questions of costs involved in application and content production.

Cheaper solutions in connectivity
In case of connectivity based technology solutions, corDECT is India’s indigenous Wireless in Local Loop technology, incubated by Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala (ashok@tenet.res.in) of IIT Madras, and jointly developed by Analog Devices Inc., Midas Communication Technologies (P) Ltd. and TeNeT group (www.tenet.res.in), IIT Madras. Based on the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications standard specified by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), corDECT provides cost-effective, simultaneous high-quality voice and data connectivity in both urban and rural areas and therefore has all the essential ingredients to bridge the digital divide. This revolutionary new technology provides voice communication using 32 Kbps ADPCM, and Internet connectivity at 35/70 Kbps. The corDECT subscriber terminal, called Wallset, provides an RJ-11 telephone port and an RJ-232 serial port for simultaneous Internet access using a PC. The Internet access speed is 35/70 Kbps. The corDECT system has been designed such that it can be easily integrated with the existing network. The system interfaces to the network on E1 (2.048 Mbps) lines as per ITU-T G703 standard. In one of the configurations, the corDECT system acts like a switch along with the wireless local loop. The numbering plan is flexible so that it can be modified as per the requirements. The tones, announcements, metering, charging, switching, routing and special services are provided by the ‘switch part’ of the corDECT system. Alternatively, corDECT can also be configured as an Access Network connected to a main exchange using ITU-T specified access protocol V5.2.A transparent version with two-wire analog interface to any exchange is also available for quick rollout.

CorDECT has been designed to be a modular system. While the basic unit provides service to up to 1000 subscribers, multiple corDECT systems can be connected together using a transit switch. The system has been designed in such a way that the initial investment for the Fixed Part is low. Further, since this scheme does not require frequency planning, the installations need not be coordinated. Coupled with the low cost, it thus makes corDECT one of the most versatile Wireless in Local Loop systems available today.

After successful field trials by the Department of Telecommunications at several sites in India, and by Telebras, the Brazilian counterpart of DoT, at Sao Paulo, Brazil, the technology has now been licensed to a few companies in India, Singapore, Tunisia and Brazil. Systems are operational in Madagascar, Fiji, Kenya, Tunisia, Argentina and Nigeria. Recently, Midas
Communication, picked up a $12 million (around Rs 60 crore) order from Egypt, the country’s biggest export order in the telecom sector. In Egypt, Midas is to install 200,000 telephone lines based on the corDect wireless in local loop (WLL) technology.

The advantages of the corDECT technology have been its low per-line cost, scalability and both telephone and Internet connectivity. A critique of the corDECT technology has been issues related to line-of-sight and dependency on power. The future of corDECT includes the developing of a hybrid system with ISRO that will utilise geostationary satellites to increase range and coverage

A decisive point in the communication revolution has doubtlessly been the advent of VSAT. Very small aperture terminals are playing a growing role in the provision of telephony, distance education and data services in remote areas. VSAT technology is a communication network set up through a series of receiver/transceiver terminals, which range from 0.6 to 3.8 metres in diameter, connected by a central hub through a satellite. VSAT is capable of supporting Internet, data, LAN and voice/fax communications. This technology is useful over geographically dispersed areas and in places where there is no infrastructure established. Due to falling equipment prices and the large footprint offered by communications satellites, VSATs are being deployed in areas where terrestrial telecommunication infrastructure is either uneconomical or too difficult to install. Prices for VSATs have fallen rapidly over the past decade, allowing manufacturers to expand sales of VSAT systems into low-end applications such as rural telephony.

In its goal to connect rural India to the Internet and promote livelihood generation through e-commerce and access to information, TARAhaat (www.tarahaat.com) faced the fundamental problem of connecting rural villages to the World Wide Web. TARAhaat decided to deploy VSATs in the villages of the Bundelkhand region where the villagers did not have access to telephone lines. Also the quality of the lines reaching other villages was not sufficient to transmit data. So far, the VSAT units have been working well despite challenges along the way for TARAhaat like, finding a location that is protected from the elements, providing proper earthing for protection from changes in voltage due to overloading or lightning strikes.

The Warana Wired Village Project in Maharashtra is another project that deployed VSAT with the initial objective of enabling sugarcane farmers to interface with the cooperatives. However, Warana has abandoned the VSAT route. According to Ameet Nivsarkar, Warana has switched over, around six months back to the CorDECT technology, with six or seven connections already in place. The next three months will witness the deployment of the corDECT WLL in 60 more villages. The strengths of VSAT are that the technology has the ability to cover long distances; no local loop is required and there is short provisioning lead-time for quick connection. The weaknesses of the VSAT technology are its susceptibility to prevailing weather conditions, latency problems due to the distance between the satellite and the ground station and relatively high usage fees in comparison to other wireless technologies.

Wi-Fi: The last word in connectivity?
Many believe that a revolution which goes by the unlikely name of 802.11 (or Wi-Fi—wireless fidelity) is all set to change the connectivity scenario."While WiFi may not be a reality today in India, it’s going to be a workable and affordable solution in the next 18-24 months", predicts Jain of Netcore solutions. In countries like the US, one can roam around a limited area free from wires and still access the Ethernet (and therefore, the Internet) at high speeds. Wireless LANs are only one part of how Wi-Fi can be used. The real promise lies in the ability to string together many such LANs and build a wide-area network, just like the Internet was built in its early days. The difference: this one needs no wires, giving end users complete freedom and mobility. Since it uses open spectrum, this also means the costs involved in building this out are very low. This becomes the "commons" answer to expensive 2.5G and 3G wireless networks. Wi-Fi’s benefits (use of open spectrum, high-speed, rapid deployment) make it an excellent candidate for building out mainstream data networks in emerging markets like India, where cost plays a very important role. Besides, Wi-Fi is an ideal technology framework for entrepreneurs - they can go in and set up wireless hubs in neighbourhoods to provide services. "We need to think of Wi-Fi networks as core to building out a connected nation. The question is how to put it together to build a bottom-up community network providing low-cost, mass-market connectivity", remarks Rajesh.

In India, Media Lab Asia (MLA) is testing the Linux driven DakNet (www.daknet.net), a wireless networking system (based on Wi-Fi) by which information is swapped between a central office system and remote area machines (each installed with a compact wireless card) through an intermediate mobile computer device also called mobile access points, such as a computer mounted on a vehicle. As the Dak computer moves through a certain route, it exchanges updated information with each kiosk wirelessly. Information from each kiosk is stored in specific pockets that are downloaded onto the central system based in the office station, such as at the Bhoomi project kiosks in Dodabalapur in Karnataka. The transfer rate speed is 2.6 MB/sec. The mobile access points are mounted on local buses, which pass the Bhoomi kiosks 3 times a day. The transfer of data can take place up to a radius of 1.25 kms before and after the kiosk. The DakNet has immense potential for rural populations. The laudable features of the DakNet are that it is mounted on to a local bus, thereby cutting down additional costs incurred on creating new space to accommodate the mobile access points; it is priced effectively at Rs.10, 000/-; it works on low bandwidth; and no real time access is needed. The DakNet is still a solution in the R&D stage, with the Bhoomi still its only full-fledged implementation. Says Amir Hasson, former bsiness development manager and now founder of First Mile Solutions, "At this point in time, DakNet is like an actor without an audience." Hasson rules out the commercialisation of DakNet as it is not viable at this point of time and adds that the business opportunity is not DakNet but Wi-Fi. Future plans of the DakNet include a possible partnership with Drishtee.

Voice over Internet protocol is another technological step forward as a disruptive technology, because it has the capability to completely replace the routing technology system for circuit-switched local exchanges in rural and remote areas. It can also be slowly integrated into an existing infrastructure network, such as those of the PSTN and cellular service providers, by adding individual components as they become beneficial to the commercial operation. It can be used to build a completely new and lower cost network. This could include an accommodation for inter-operability with existing networks, for those who need to continue relying on older methods of access such as the PSTN. When combined with wireless technology in the local loop, such a network may provide an affordable solution for rural areas, particularly when the primary services delivered over the network will employ multimedia. A major advantage of VoIP and Internet telephony is that this technology avoids the tolls charged by ordinary telephone service.

Another breakthrough technology is wireless electricity for villages. This could be extremely useful for rural areas in India, where power shortages are the norm. However, critics of wireless technology argue that the wireless technology has nothing to do with production of electricity but only with beaming the electricity produced, something that is not a solution as the issue is not infrastructure to transport the electricity, but the production of electricity itself.

While multiple players and varied technological menus in the communications sector augur well for rural and underserved areas, the key really is for a well thought out policy and regulatory environment that can underscore the significance of equitable and convenient access. With many options in connectivity still in the testing phase, and with no clear mandate in the policy infrastructure for taking cutting-edge solutions to non-elite populations, the translation of choices into realities still seems distant for the majority.

RESHMI SARKAR
The author contributed this piece to DATAQUEST and is the program coordinator of IT for Change, a non-profit organization in Bangalore. ITfC supports the info-communication needs of other NGOs and undertakes research on the social dimensions of ICTs.