[kictanet] Here’s the Real Way to Get Internet to the Next 4 Billion People

[Barrack Otieno]

Great work and way to go for our local communities.  Practical Internet.

Best Regards

On 9/21/15, Brian Munyao Longwe via kictanet
<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I was quite excited to see this article by Wired! Featured in it is the
> work I've been doing for Oxfam's Internet Now! project in Northern Uganda
> over the past 2 and a half years. (the guy in the photo is one of the
> wireless internet engineers from the local community that we have trained
> and equipped to bridge the last mile with low cost wireless technology).
>
> We established a social enterprise that is using internet technologies to
> improve livelihoods for communities in this post-conflict regions. This is
> mainly through making high speed broadband available to rural communities
> at low cost. So far we have been able to establish points-of-presence in
> the towns of Gulu, Lira, Soroti and Mbale - NGOs, corporates and
> individuals alike have been flocking to take up the broadband services
> after years of poor quality and expensive services from the mobile
> operators who sell mainly data bundles that have poor performance. We ride
> on Uganda's national optical fiber network (owned by the ministry of ICT's
> National IT Authority - NITA-U). and from Kampala interconnect with a
> variety of bulk providers (Seacom, Liquid Telecom, Simbanet, BCS) who are
> connected to submarine networks via Mombasa. Our service approach has
> greatly challenged the internet services paradigm and scored greatly with
> our subscribers, many of whom enjoy better services in these rural towns
> than their colleagues/counterparts in the capital Kampala.
>
> We also provide employment to members of the local community through a
> specialized form on business process outsourcing known as impact sourcing
> or more commonly as microwork. We have an average of about 60 young people
> working daily to deliver digitial jobs to companies in the USA, mostly
> Sillicon Valley. Most of them are based at a BPO delivery center we have
> established at Gulu University with 75 workstation while others work in
> their villages via centers that we have established in 20 sub-counties
> across 5 districts that offer 5 workstation dedicated to BPO.
>
> We're very happy with the impact that the social enterprise is having in
> the communities and I am now in the process of winding up my programme
> management role and handing over the reins to a competent management team
> that we have established to run the social enterprise.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Brian
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 9:28 PM, Watila Alex via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> Deploy Internet the old-fashioned way.
>>
>> “It’s not so sexy to build roads, but we’re not going to overcome the
>> challenge of missing infrastructure with flying cars,”
>>
>>
>> http://www.wired.com/2015/09/heres-real-way-get-internet-next-4-billion-people/
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>


-- 
Barrack O. Otieno
+254721325277
+254-20-2498789
Skype: barrack.otieno
http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/

G