Community-based solar power revenue alternative to improve sustainability of a rural wireless mesh network

Abstract

Given the needs for a clean and easy way to maintain and secure powering wireless networks in rural areas and to gen- erate revenue to guarantee the sustainability of its intended goals, an innovative approach to leverage solar power to ad- dress both needs is presented herein. Results comprise em- powered locals trained to ensure local maintenance and ap- propriation; local usage and maintenance data; and a cost- ing of the solution and its maintenance after 10 months of operation. It is shown that the solution presented can be lo- cally maintained and could provide enough revenue for the wireless network to continue providing its intended goals.

Description

Keywords

Electronic commerce, Employment, Installation management, Performance and usage measurement, Payment schemes, Social issues

Citation

Rey-Moreno, C., et al. (2013). Community-based solar power revenue alternative to improve sustainability of a rural wireless mesh network. In Proc. 6th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTD), 2: 132–135. Cape Town, South Africa