Title: An Innovative
Model for Providing Digital Connectivity to Rural Areas
Abstract: In many parts
of the world, it has become clear that the establishment of landline high-speed
communication data links to connect the rural communities is an expensive
and impractical task. However, the need for high-speed connections to access
the new generation of Internet-based applications continues to increase.
The development of wireless infrastructures to provide such connectivity
appears to be the logical solution to this problem. These fast connections
can be provided either by pure wireless networks or by a combination of wireless
ad-hoc networks and minimal fixed overlay networks or backbones. With the
difficulty in implementing such plans with commercial success, providing
digital connectivity to rural communities through academic institutes using
satellite communications and/or Wide Area Networks provides a very viable
option. In this paper, we proposed an innovative solution to this timely
problem via collaborative efforts between academic institutions and local
communities. The proposed model has many benefits and appears to be the most
viable option to deal with the emerging issue of the digital divide. We also
present few case studies in which the proposed model is employed
Authors: Abdelnasser
M. Abdelaal and Hesham H. Ali