Internet

Although OLPC itself is assuming that there won't be connections in many places, some laptops will be deployed in cities that have some type of Internet connectivity, even if it is more expensive and lower bandwidth than what Americans are used to.

OLPC is selling Laptops to governments. The governments will have to decide what Internet connections they can afford to include in the package they provide to schools.

Since the OLPC is primarily an educational project, we are less concerned with providing Internet access to kids and more concerned with providing a laptop that is capable of networking locally. Since both the Internet, and the OLPC laptop use the standard IP protocols, there are numerous ways in which schools, towns and countries can extend connectivity beyond the built-in mesh network. We expect that most countries will not want to just dump the kids onto the global Internet, but will want to build their own Internet that provides a rich variety of resources targetted to children and available in their own language.

Some pages on this wiki discuss ways of extending the reach of the mesh network:

• Motoman - File delivery by Wi-Fi enabled motorbikes.
• UUCP - Unix to Unix CoPy - File transfer via dial-up modems, etc.
• MHP to laptop interface possibility - Digital Video Broadcasting - Multimedia Home Platform.
• Radio and broadcast - Shortwave radio, short/long distance Wi-Fi, Satellite, Embedding data in the audio of music radio broadcasts, etc.
• Sneakernet - Email/file delivery on physical media, such as USB Flash Drive, CD or DVD.

The following collection is some random ideas that have been proposed, relative to Internet connectivity.

• Some places, mainly in cities in the less poor countries, will have high-capacity landlines at reasonable costs.

• Some places will have low-capacity landlines available at reasonable costs.

• Many more places will have low capacity landlines available but the costs will be prohibitive for using the Internet in the same way an American school might use it.

• There is technology, and NGOs such as SFLAN and BARWN ready to deliver it, for broadband point-to-point wireless connections. BARWN has a link across San Francisco Bay connecting its free network in San Francisco to Berkeley and Oakland. SFLAN technology has been deployed all across Bhutan. However, this only addresses regional connectivity, i.e. connecting towns within a country. Nevertheless, since the prime users of the laptops will be kids speaking only their native language, this kind of localized Internet will supply 95% of their needs.

• WiMax technology will offer considerably higher bandwidth at considerably lower cost over a much larger area per transmitter. WiMax has a service area of 30 miles (50 km) radius. There are early announcements of nation-scale WiMax networks in the US and Pakistan, at an estimated cost of about $10 per person. We may expect to hear of many more.

• Satellite connections are normally the most expensive, particularly in Africa where there is insufficient market competition. However, SES Global] is offering free satellite connections for OLPC. That means that schools need a VSAT terminal to connect. They start at about $1000.

• Wifi hotspots or wimax rollouts could be funded in some areas by the passing tourist trade through subscriptions.

• Intermittent connections can be made using dial-up links, and variations of FidoNet and Sneakernet. FidoNet depends on the existence of phone lines with reasonable night-time rates. Each server in the net calls a few of its nearest neighbors at night to exchange e-mail and other files. Nationwide propagation takes a few days. Sneakernet simply means taking data on removable media or portable computers from one computer to another. The data rate on transferring a single rewritable CD by walking from one village to another once a day is

700 MB / (24 hrs/day * 3600 sec/hr) = 8100 bytes/sec = 64.8 Kbps, somewhat more than a 56K modem.

Taking ten or a dozen CDs to different villages by bicycle or motor scooter, or even by bus, multiplies the data rate accordingly. Using rewritable DVDs multiplies it again. USB capable DVD recorders are available for under $100.

Bhutan has been experimenting with delivery of e-mail to villages by the postal service using Simputers, over a wireless national network built by Clif Cox of SFLAN.

The Wizzy Digital Courier system in South Africa and elsewhere connects schools with no internet connection using USB Flash drive Sneakernet, UUCP off-peak dial-up, etc.

First Mile Solutions - DakNet uses Mobile Access Points (Wi-Fi Vehicles). They provide a service with data delivery by Wi-Fi enabled motorbikes and buses. They visit villages and transfer data to/from Wi-Fi enabled kiosks. Local people use the kiosks for email, SMS, voicemail, web searches, and other local products and services. The villagers can buy and sell products (medicines, craft-items, seeds, fertilizers, books, cosmetics, music) through the kiosks. The goods are delivered to them on the same vehicles as the data. This social-enterprise company was set up by people from MIT to provide low-cost data services, at prices as low as $1 per user per month. ‘Dak’ is a Hindi word for ‘Post’ or ‘Postal’.