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Wi-fi buses used to deliver the web to remote villages

30/03/07 – Isolated villages in developing countries are receiving the internet via buses fitted with wi-fi. It is part of the United Villages project and as part of it villagers can request specific information to keep up to date with the outside world.
The wi-fi buses which are supplemented by motorcycles update the web content in cities before driving out to remote locations and transmitting.

Up to six such trips a day can be made to keep refreshing the information to the villagers.

The information is communicated from a small box with an antenna that is located on the vehicles.

Many villages that are in remote locations have no access to the internet as it is too expensive to lay the wiring required for a conventional internet connection.

Generally a village will have one, shared, computer as the residents can not afford buy one each.

The United Villages projected was created by Amir Hassan who said that the company aimed to provide the content people in isolated locations care about.

He told BBC News: "There's only 0.003% percent of the web that rural India cares about. "They want to know the cricket scores, they want to see the new Aishwarya Rai photos, and they want to hear a sample of the latest Bollywood tunes."

However the buses also provide vital functions such as allowing the villagers to order medical and farming supplies and to send and receive emails.

"What we've done is created a catalogue of those products that they can order at the kiosk and get them delivered the next day via the bus. "We're bringing e-commerce to rural India," Mr Hassan continued

As a large proportion of the internet is published in English the village to relies on the person who runs the village computer.

In the village of Satasankha Kishor Swain is that man, he says that he is hoping to use the information provided by the project to encourage villagers to invest in a better future.

"My objective is to show to the village youth that having a PC with connectivity is a viable business so that more and more unemployed youth can take up this as a self-employment opportunity," he said.

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<a href="http://www.pulsewebhosting.com/news/wi-fi-buses-used-to-deliver-the-web-to-remote-villages/66/" title="Wi-fi buses used to deliver the web to remote villages">Wi-fi buses used to deliver the web to remote villages</a> Published Date: 2007-03-30 11:54:36

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