Ushering Zimbabwe into internet age

Ushering Zimbabwe into internet age

VISION: Nelson Chamisa

• Chamisa makes proposal for national website

• Debt payment eases Zim internet disruption

• Robert Ndlovu: VoIP now legal in Zimbabwe?

• New report says 1,4m Zimbabweans use internet

• Mugabe gives accent to internet, phone tap law

• Zim parliament passes internet, phone law

• Zim set to pass internet, phone monitoring law

• Zimbabwe given net censorship all-clear

• Zimbabwe uses net to hit back at critics

• ISPs revolt over TelOne rates

• Internet service restored after TelOne pays up

• TelOne debt triggers internet chaos in Zimbabwe

By Rodgers Svovah
Posted to the web: 21/03/2009 15:44:18
PROPOSALS by Information Technology (ICT) Minister Nelson Chamisa for ICT development in Zimbabwe should be taken seriously, particularly by computer scientists, as no amount of donor funds will resuscitate our economy without a concerted effort to develop our ICT capabilities.

I am convinced that Zimbabwe can become a hub of ICT in Africa, given the right support through enabling legislation.

Chamisa’s proposal touched me so much as it falls within my current research interests, which are in Distributed, Mobile and Internet Systems. My research is specifically focused on providing low-cost internet access to isolated rural areas, using mostly recycled materials to support the infrastructure requirements for wireless mesh networks by identifying ways to expand the traditional concept of Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), from wireless local area network (WLAN) into wireless wide area network (WWAN) using innovative technologies not originally intended by the original 802.11 protocol.

Indeed, many rural areas in India, Brazil and even the UK and USA are already harnessing the same technologies to provide internet access to their isolated rural populace.

My research advocates for the building of custom networking equipment, primarily cheap Access Points (APs) using recycled desktop computers or obsolete single-board computers with free open-source software, to achieve low cost rural connectivity.

Although the research was carried out in Europe, the environment was adapted to make it as similar to Africa as possible by identifying mountainous isolated rural terrains to test the equipment. This research found that it is not only possible to make available free or low cost networking equipment to rural communities, but also possible to help reduce e-waste in urban communities by putting to good use the old hardware equipment that could otherwise have been dumped with devastating effects to the environment.

This is particularly true to Zimbabwe where most of the ICT equipment is donated second-hand equipment that is soon found in landfills near Warren Park and other dumping sites pausing hazards by emitting acids into the underground water and soils.

As part of the research, an AP was built from scratch using single board computer and old desktop PC system and the Intersil Prism chipset that is supported under open source software like Linux and/or OpenBSD. The AP was able to beam signals for a distance equivalent to that between Harare and Chivu.

A simple calculation will show that to extend broadband internet access from Harare to Buhera, which is my home county, only three Access Points will be required, one positioned in Harare, focused towards Chivu, the second one positioned in Chivu, focused towards Buhera.

What this means is that a mesh network will save the southern suburbs of Harare using the first AP that also provides a back-haul to the Chivu line, while another mesh will serve Chivu and the surrounding areas while also acting as backhaul to the Buhera line and the third one will serve Buhera and the surroundings.

We could then do the same from Buhera to Rusape/Nyazura and from Buhera to Chipinge and Gutu. The good thing in Zimbabwe is that we have high mountains and tall trees that could be handy in the hosting of antennas; with solar-powered signal boosters (repeaters) covertly installed in these physical features. Not only that, but employment will be created as the APs will need to be manufactured in Zimbabwe using freely available open-source software.

From this, we can see how easy and feasible it is to cover the whole country with internet connectivity with almost no help from outsiders. Manpower will be needed to support the mesh network connectivity creating much needed hi-tech network support jobs.

The booming e-commerce that will be ushered in as the farmers and ordinary citizens use the internet to sell and buy commodities and access micro-finance will lead directly to the creation of software and web development jobs for our university and college leavers.

The health industry will use this to provide e-health, whereby doctors in the city can direct operations on patients in remote clinics, with more IT personnel employed directly by the health department.

In time, citizens will file their tax returns and pay their vehicle taxes, import duties, rates etc. through the internet. No citizen will need to spend productive time waiting in a bank queue to withdraw money for incidentals. The whole economy will be rejuvenated. This may sound far-fetched, but with adequate support, state-of-the-art ICT companies can be formed by many able Zimbabweans and make this possible within a year as per Minister Chamisa’s prediction.

It should be emphasised that for this to be achieved, responsible authorities in Zimbabwe should stop crafting laws that mitigate ICT development as is the case now. For example VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) should not be outlawed simply to protect settlement revenues for the mostly incompetent parastatal state telecommunications companies TelOne and NetOne.

It should be noted that the protection of settlement revenues is directly correlated with a number of telecoms policy problems like access deficit (access far less than cost), low household penetration rates, long waiting lists and most importantly lack of network development in rural areas -- all these currently inherent in Zimbabwe as rightly pointed out by Chamisa.

These policy problems are the major causes of our ICT backwardness in Zimbabwe. It is without doubt that a lot of well resourced Zimbabweans stand ready to invest in ICT infrastructural development in their country, provided the right laws are passed that guarantee a fair return on their investment and as Chamisa promised, the authorities are kept at arms-length from interfering with the running of those businesses.

What we want now is less talk and more action. The government must pass the laws and investment will come. We have the expertise, advanced machinery and money to roll out these projects.

Rodgers Svovah is a computer scientist and researcher currently based in the UK
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com