This document discusses the development of Village Telco, a project aimed at building robust telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas using an open source and open hardware approach. It describes Village Telco's Mesh Potato device, which functions as both a wireless access point and analog telephone adapter, and can be powered via phone or data lines. The document provides examples of Mesh Potato installations and outlines plans to develop an improved Mesh Potato 2.0. It encourages interested developers, engineers and entrepreneurs to get involved in supporting Village Telco's mission of expanding connectivity to underserved communities.

1. Building a
Robust
Telecommunications
Ecology with
Village Telco
Steve Song
LIFT12

3. South Africa
Vodacom Wireless
Coverage Map

4. Zimbabwe
Econet Wireless
Coverage Map

6. When access is
expensive, it’s hard to
learn to play the game

7. Resilience

8. Telephone Internet
Infrastructure Infrastructure

9. Super Superfluous
Computing Computing

10. United States Ethiopia
Uganda

13. The Unlicensed Ecosystem

14. Growth of WiFi
Source: Daily Wireless – www.dailywireless.org/2012/02/08/hotspot-2-0/

15. Hacking
Hardware

18. A
Simple
Idea
Analogue Wireless
Telephony Access
Adaptor Point
for ordinary
phones

19. Beta Concept
Production Prototype

21. Not Your Average Wifi Device
Outdoor Ready
Weatherised
UV Protected
Tough Sealed Unit
Capable of
surviving
line spike,
brownouts,
power
surges.
Flexible
Accepts 9-40V
Can be powered
via phone or data
line

22. Mesh Potato Installation

23. ISP

25. East Timor
Lemi Soares
Dili
Timor Leste

26. Wayne Abroue
Griqua Community
South Africa

27. Rael Lissoos
Johannesburg
South Africa

28. Plans for 2012
Mesh Potato 2.0
 Open Source
 Open Hardware
 Faster
 Cheaper

29. A Parting Thought...

31. But only if we act together…

32. How to get
involved
If you would like to support a
Village Telco directly, please
get in touch:
steve@villagetelco.org
twitter @stevesong
If you’re a developer, engineer, or
entrepreneur, or just interested,
please join us in the Village Telco
development community at
http://bit.ly/vt-community
http://villagetelco.org twitter @villagetelco

33. Image Credits
Google Server by NiallKennedy Rael Lissoos by edyson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/102932643 http://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/2340944921/
BY NC BY NC
IBM Blue Gene by Argonne National Library Antenna Setup by Razvan Caliman
http://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/3334947628 http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsk/2760922792/#
BY SA BY
Telephone Box by Vissago Fibre Optic Sensors by PNNL
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vissago/4249091962/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnnl/3638446385/
BY NC BY NC SA
Telephone Line by fernando
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernando/522949553/
BY SA Scaffolding in Addis Ababa
Courtesy Owen Barder
http://www.owen.org
Blackjack by Shannon K
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shannonmary/3040998286/
BY SA ND
Reserved Parking
Licensed from iStockPhoto
http://www.istockphoto.com
Weakest Link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayvando707/6843918403/
All Rights Reserved - Re-used by permission Other photos CC BY SA Village Telco