INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION - ITU
|INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION | |
|TELECOMMUNICATION |Document 2/179(Rev.1)-E |
|DEVELOPMENT BUREAU |19 December 2000 |
|ITU-D STUDY GROUPS |Original: English |
| |
|THIRD MEETING OF STUDY GROUP 1: GENEVA, 11 - 15 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
|THIRD MEETING OF STUDY GROUP 2: GENEVA, 18 - 22 SEPTEMBER 2000 |
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FOR ACTION
Question 10/2: Communications for rural and remote areas
Focus Group 7: Study various mechanisms by which to promote the development of new telecommunication technologies for rural applications
STUDY GROUP 2
SOURCE: RAPPORTEUR FOR FOCUS GROUP 7
TITLE: FINAL REPORT OF ITU-D FOCUS GROUP 7: NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR RURAL APPLICATIONS
________
This document has been modified following the discussions at the Fourth Meeting of the Telecommunication Development Advisory Group (TDAG), Geneva, 12-13 October 2000, and the Editorial meeting of Focus Group 7, Geneva, 13 November 2000.
______________
CONTACT POINT: MR. YASUHIKO KAWASUMI, JAPAN TELECOM CO. LTD/TEL. +81 3 55408012/
FAX: +81 3 55431969/E-MAIL: KAWASUMI@JAPAN-TELECOM.CO.JP
New Technologies for Rural Applications
Final Report of
ITU-D Focus Group 7
“Bridging the digital divide, providing digital opportunities for all”
Message from Sir Donald Maitland, Chairman of the
Independent Commission for World Wide Telecommunications Development
In the early days of the cinema an enterprising American company produced a series of documentaries under the title The March of Time. Each of these short informative films concluded with the resounding statement of the obvious: “Time marches on”. Yes, of course. And so does mankind.
In 1968 the Canadian academic Marshall McLuhan foresaw the emergence of the global village. In the autumn of 1973 the Yom Kippur war precipitated a world oil crisis. This in turn led to the demand by the leaders of the developing world for a new international order. The campaign which followed focused the attention of the international community on the economic and social gap between industrialized and developing countries and, in the immediately following years, much effort was devoted to the task of defining in what ways such a new order might be created.
In 1981 the General Assembly of the United Nations drew attention to the “fundamental importance of communication infrastructures as an essential element in the social and economic development of all countries”. This prompted the International Telecommunication Union at its Plenipotentiary Conference at Nairobi in 1982 to decide to set up an Independent Commission with the task of recommending ways in which the expansion of telecommunications across the world might be stimulated.
Since The Missing Link – the report of the Independent Commission – saw the light of day in January 1985, much valuable work has been done to reduce the telecommunication gap between the industrialized and developing worlds. The Commission recognized that new technologies could enable developing countries to replace their outdated and inadequate networks with systems, which would offer opportunities hitherto unavailable to them. At the time the Commission acknowledged that extending national networks to rural and remote areas posed a particular challenge. The world Telecommunication Development Conference at Valetta in March 1998 addressed this challenge when it determined that a new and more radical approach was needed. The aim would be to identify those new technologies, which took account of the particular conditions of developing countries. Once identified these could be made available to the relevant developing countries. In March 1999 a Focus Group was formed to carry out this task.
The final report of the ITU-D Focus Group 7 is by any standards an impressive document and its members deserve the gratitude of all those who look forward to the final closing of the telecommunication gap. At the outset, the Group defined rural as including isolated and poorly served areas where, for a variety of reasons, it is not easy to establish telecommunication services. Having considered the special characteristics of such areas, the Group set about examining existing projects, which serve the needs of the inhabitants in such fields as telemedicine, support for small businesses and emergency relief, among others. Their researches covered the world – from Sri Lanka to Georgia, from Peru to Greenland, and virtually everywhere in between. In the process the Group have compiled, largely by electronic means, an extensive library of invaluable information. This, together with their comprehensive recommendations, will constitute an essential element in the programme for the achievement of the goal of universal access to basic communications set out in the Action Plan adopted at Valetta in 1998. Mankind marches on.
Limpley Stoke, Bath (England)
7 September 2000
Foreword by the ITU Secretary-General
In 1998, the World Telecommunication Development Conference at Valleta, Malta adopted Topic 7, the study of new technologies for rural and remote applications, as a component of its Action Plan. To address this directive, TDAG and ITU-D Study Group 2 decided, in the spring of 1999, to create a focus group to study Topic 7 and report its findings. Focus Group 7 fulfilled its mission and now, one and a half years after the group was first set up, its Report is available.
How well I recall my own involvement as a delegates of my country in launching the study of this far-reaching topic during WTDC98. For this reason I have read the Focus Group 7 Report with particular interest. As we fully anticipated two years ago, the Report reveals a wide and ever-increasing array of low-cost information and communication technologies (ICTs) capable of supporting sustainable and socially beneficial services in rural areas. We also foresaw the complex challenges and strategic choices that now face developing countries in their efforts to grasp and make full use of these technologies.
The ITU's “Missing Link” report, issued 15 years ago, set a goal to bring telephone services within easy reach of all humankind before the 21st Century. Thanks to new technologies and innovative schemes, we are closing some of the gaps. Access to a telephone will soon be within walking distance of us all. But as one gap narrows, others are widening. These are the gaps between people who are connected to the global information infrastructure and those who are not. As I remarked in my opening speech at TELECOM '99, we must bring Internet-style services to all humankind within the first decade of the new millennium, and apply all the new technologies and impulses so that the gaps in connectivity to the Internet can be reduced.
To meet this goal, solutions for providing services to rural areas are sorely needed. Many existing solutions, as well as some which are under development, are presented in this Report. Sections 2 and 3 of the Report describe a range of telecommunication-based applications that are being implemented in rural and remote areas, such as telemedicine and disaster management. In Section 4, the Report profiles new noteworthy technologies and technology combinations for establishing access to telecommunications in rural areas, including satellite-based Internet access and IMT-2000 cellular systems. Section 5 discusses the need for renewable and off-grid energy systems to support telecommunications in rural areas where there is no electricity. Finally, Section 6 points towards new directions in the development of information technology systems for meeting the specific needs of rural areas, such as remote terminal maintenance and configuration, and shared or communal forms of access to IT services.
All of these considerations must be fully addressed in the development of rural communications services as we strive to bridge the digital divide. The need for closer integration of information technology and development programs in the service of poverty alleviation has been recognized in several global forums this year, including the G8 Summit in Okinawa and the subsequent UN Millennium Summit in New York. The ITU is expected to play an important role in furthering the goals established at these global events and this Report is one of our first contributions towards this end.
Yoshio UTSUMI
Secretary-General, ITU
Geneva, 22 September 2000
Foreword by Mr. Hamadoun I. Touré, Director,
Telecommunication Development Bureau
The developments in communication and information technologies contain both opportunities and challenges. When properly implemented they offer unique opportunities to leapfrog over traditional stages of development. On the other hand, if no action is taken, they will give rise to new forms of exclusion. The possibilities and opportunities surrounding such developments have now been firmly placed on the global agenda. The issue of digital divide was the focus of attention of the most recent G-8 summit in Okinawa and the theme of the United Nations Millennium Summit. The resulting momentum should give a further fillip to ITU activities in this area.
The development of telecommunications in rural and remote areas forms an important mission of the ITU Development Sector as emphasized at the last World Telecommunication Development Conference. The activities geared to enhancement of telecommunication systems and services through support for building of infrastructure, advising on appropriate institutional structures, assisting in mobilizing financial and human resources, and applications of new technologies all have the central objective of achieving universal access to telecommunication and information services.
This report of the Focus Group 7 is a timely and valuable contribution in the context of the current concerns on digital divide. While addressing the issue of new technologies to meet the needs of rural and remote areas of developing countries, the Focus Group has enumerated a series of services and technical solutions specifically suited to the technological, infrastructural, social and economic context of the developing world. This is an important resource for developing countries and its value can be only realized by continuous maintenance of the website.
The Focus Group has also come up with a series of concrete and action-oriented recommendations that can be immediately followed up by the Telecommunication Development Bureau. The recommendations encompass facilitating development of information appliances for rural use, renewable energy sources for telecommunication appliances, collaboration with micro-finance organizations, implementation of pilot projects based on application of new technologies, continued maintenance of the website to gather and update case studies on technologies suited for rural applications and holding symposia on new technologies. BDT will endeavour to implement the recommendations and calls on all partners to help in implementing them.
The work of the Focus Group 7 is a testimony to the innovation adopted at the World Telecommunication Development Conference (Valletta, 1998) of addressing questions in a short period of time. The BDT has appealed, in this context that efforts must be made to complete studies in time for concrete implementation to be achieved and reported to the subsequent World Telecommunication Development Conference (2002).
While congratulating the Focus Group 7 and its participants for the work done, particular mention must be made of the role played by Mr. Yasuhiko Kawasumi who chaired the group with distinction and great devotion. We also place on record our gratitude to the Administration of Japan whose voluntary contribution has made the work of the Focus Group 7 possible.
We now call upon all our Members and sector members to work closely with us to ensure that the digital divide is tackled in a practical and efficient manner.
Hamadoun I. TOURÉ
Director BDT, ITU
Geneva, 21 September 2000
Acknowledgements
Focus Group 7 gratefully acknowledges the voluntary financial contributions of the Japanese Administration, whose generous assistance enabled this focus group on new technologies for rural and remote applications. The focus group would like to thank all of the information and resource providers who furthered the work of Focus Group 7, including the contributors of the case reports, participants in Focus Group 7 meetings and activities, moderators of the on-line discussion groups, the editorial committee, and all of the focus group members. The Rapporteur of FG7 would like to express his special thanks to Ms. Rebecca Mayer, BDT research officer, for her excellent research including collection of the case library reports and exhaustive report writing; to Mr. Phillip Trotter for his work on web site construction, technology research and report writing; and to members who contributed to the final report including Mr. Roberto Bastidas-Buch, ITU-D Zone Administrator for Central America, Mr. Chris Rovero and Mr. Eberhard Roegner. Finally, the Rapporteur of FG7 would like to express his appreciation for active cooperation by Mr. Hamadoun I. Touré, Director of BDT, Mr. Nabil Kisrawi, Chairman of Study Group 2, and the many BDT staff members who furthered the focus group's progress from time to time.
Rapporteur of Focus Group 7
Mr. Yasuhiko Kawasumi, Japan Telecom Co., Ltd
List of moderators for on-line discussions
Mr. Leonid Androuchko
Mr. Guy Girardet, BDT
Mr. Jacques Rostenne, Perwit International Management Consultants
Dr. Yoshiyori Urano, Global Information and Telecommunication Institute
Mr. Mark Wood, Disaster Relief Communications Foundation
BDT support for Focus Group 7
Ms. Fidelia Akpo
Ms. Petra Bravenboer
Mr. Vishnu Calindi
Mr. Pierre Gagne
Mr. Claude Garnier
Mr. Guy Girardet
Ms. Rebecca Mayer
Ms. Sylvie Pitt-Dunand
Ms. Sylvie Raposo
Mr. Walter Richter
Mr. Phillip Trotter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| |Page |
|Forewords |5 |
|Acknowledgements |8 |
|Acronyms and abbreviations |11 |
|EXECUTIVE SUMMARY |13 |
|SECTION 1: BACKGROUND AND GOALS OF FOCUS GROUP 7 (FG7) |18 |
|1.1. Mission statement |18 |
|1.2 Objectives |18 |
|1.3 Definition of rural and remote areas |18 |
|1.4 FG7 work methodology |19 |
|1.5 Activities 1999-2000 |19 |
|1.6 Report scope and methodology |20 |
|SECTION 2: TRENDS IN RURAL AND REMOTE APPLICATIONS |22 |
|2.1 The role of telecommunications in rural areas |22 |
|2.2 Developers of communications-based applications |23 |
|2.3 End-user skills and training |25 |
|2.4 Installation, operation & maintenance |26 |
|2.5 Information technology and microfinance institutions |27 |
|SECTION 3: APPLICATION AREAS |28 |
|3.1 Community and small business development |28 |
|3.2 Telemedicine/telehealth |28 |
|3.3 Distance education/tele-education |32 |
|3.4 Emergency support and disaster relief |34 |
|3.5 Environmental monitoring and protection |35 |
|SECTION 4: ACCESS INFRASTRUCTURE |35 |
|4.1 Narrowband packet radio |35 |
|4.2 GSM 400 |36 |
|4.3 Combined point-to-multipoint/wireless local loop systems |38 |
|4.4 CDMA450 |42 |
|4.5 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs) |49 |
|4.6 Satellite-based Internet access |51 |
|4.7 Digital satellite radio |54 |
|4.8 Meteor burst communications |55 |
|4.9 IMT-2000 |57 |
|4.10 Wireless routers |59 |
|SECTION 5 : RENEWABLE AND OFF-GRID ENERGY SOLUTIONS |63 |
|5.1 Introduction |63 |
|5.2 Powering telecommunication and IT systems in rural areas |64 |
|5.3 Balance of system components |64 |
|5.4 Solar power |65 |
|5.5. Wind energy |66 |
|5.6 Micro-hydro power |67 |
|5.7 Hybrid power systems |68 |
|5.8 Clockwork power |69 |
|SECTION 6: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY |71 |
|6.1 Introduction |71 |
|6.2 Integrated telephone/e-mail devices |73 |
|6.3 E-mail appliances |74 |
|6.4 Handheld computers |75 |
|6.5 Internet client appliances |78 |
|6.6 Internet server appliances |80 |
|6.7 Video game systems |82 |
|6.8 Thin client systems |84 |
|6.9 Interactive voice response systems |86 |
|6.10 Transaction cards |89 |
|6.11 Computer add-ons and accessories |91 |
|SECTION 7: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS |93 |
|7.1 Concluding discussion and remarks |93 |
|7.2 Recommendations |96 |
| | |
|References |100 |
|GLOSSARY |103 |
|Annex 1: Terms of reference of ITU-D Focus Group 7 |104 |
|Annex 2: The Open Source Definition (Version 1.7) |107 |
|Annex 3: Guidelines for Designing ICTs for Rural Areas of Developing Countries | |
| |108 |
|Annex 4: List of Focus Group 7 Members |110 |
|Annex 5: Outline of proposed BDT training course on information appliances |113 |
|Footnotes |114 |
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
|ac |Alternating Current |
|adpcm |Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation |
|asic |Application Specific Integrated Circuit |
|bos |Balance Of System Components |
|cpu |Central Processing Unit |
|cs |Cell Station |
|dc |Direct Current |
|dcts |Digital Cordless Telephone System |
|dect |Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications |
|eeprom |Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory |
|etsi |European Telecommunications Standards Institute |
|fg7 |Focus Group 7 |
|ft |Fixed Terminal |
|hscsd |High Speed Circuit Switched Data |
|http |Hyper Text Transfer Protocol |
|ict |Information and Communication Technologies |
|imt-2000 |International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 |
|ip |Internet Protocol |
|irc |Internet Relay Chat |
|isdn |Integrated Services Digital Network |
|isp |Internet Service Provider |
|it |Information Technology |
|ivr |Interactive Voice Response |
|kw |Kilowatt |
|lan |Local Area Network |
|lcd |Liquid Crystal Display |
|lvd |Low Voltage Disconnect |
|mbbs |Meteor Burst Base Station |
|mct |Multipurpose Community Telecentre |
|mppt |Maximum Power Point Tracking |
|mptc |Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Cambodia |
|ngo |Non-Governmental Organization |
|os |Operating System |
|pad |Packet Assembly and Disassembly |
|pc |Personal Computer |
|phs |Personal Handyphone System |
|pmp |Point to Multipoint |
|pots |Plain Old Telephone Service |
|pstn |Public Switched Telephone Network |
|ptp |Point To Point |
|ram |Random Access Memory |
|rom |Read Only Memory |
|ru |Repeater Unit |
|slip |Serial Line Internet Protocol |
|smtp |Simple Mail Transfer Protocol |
|snmp |Simple Network Management Protocol |
|ssl |Secure Socket Layer |
|tcp/ip |Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol |
|tdag |Telecommunication Development Advisory Group |
|tdma |Time Division Multiple Access |
|tgw |Transit GateWay |
|TNC |Terminal Node Controller |
|unesco |United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization |
|vap |Valetta Action Plan |
|vmu |Visual Memory Unit |
|voip |Voice Over Internet Protocol |
|vsat |Very Small Aperture Terminal (used with satellite systems) |
|wan |Wide Area Network |
|wap |Wireless Access Protocol |
|warc |World Administrative Radio Conference |
|wll |Wireless Local Loop |
|wtdc |World Telecommunication Development Conference |
|www |World Wide Web |
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
More than 2.5 billion people - over 40% of the planet's population - live in rural and remote areas of developing countries. Of the small fraction that has any access to telecommunications, radio broadcasts and voice telephony have traditionally been the main services provided. Today, a wide variety of new telecommunication applications such as e-mail, e-commerce, tele-education, telehealth, and telemedicine, among others, has made access to interactive multimedia services as important for rural and remote communities as voice connectivity alone. Since each rural district or community requires a different mix of voice, text, image, video and audio communications to best meet its needs, today's telecommunication network operators must be able to support a wide range of services, applications and bandwidth levels at a reasonable cost.
The Valetta Action Plan (VAP), formulated at the second ITU World Telecommunication Development Conference in March 1998, sought to promote universal access to basic telecommunication, broadcasting and Internet as tools for development in rural and remote areas. Focus Group 7 has spent a year researching technological developments that have the potential to support telecommunication applications which are commercially viable, or sustainable through other transparent financing mechanisms, in rural and remote areas of developing countries.
Rural and remote (or just "rural") areas exhibit one or more of the following characteristics:
▪ scarcity or absence of public facilities such as reliable electricity supply, water, access roads and regular transport;
▪ scarcity of technical personnel;
▪ difficult topographical conditions, e.g. lakes, rivers, hills, mountains or deserts, which render the construction of wire telecommunication networks very costly;
▪ severe climatic conditions that make critical demands on the equipment;
▪ low level of economic activity mainly based on agriculture, fishing, handicrafts, etc.;
▪ low per capita income;
▪ underdeveloped social infrastructures (health, education, etc.);
▪ low population density;
▪ very high calling rates per telephone line, reflecting the scarcity of telephone service and the fact that large numbers of people rely on a single telephone line.
These characteristics make it difficult to provide public telecommunication services of acceptable quality by traditional means at affordable prices, while also achieving commercial viability for the service provider.
Focus Group 7 Findings on Applications
Focus Group 7 found that the Internet is the most widely used platform adopted to deliver multimedia applications in rural areas of developing countries. While much negative attention in developing countries has been focused on the use of the Internet as an illegal bypass mechanism in the international traffic arena, the long-term importance of the Internet for developing countries lies in its potential to improve the domestic flow of economic and educational resources between isolated rural communities and urban centers. Areas of application for Internet- and other communication-based applications include tele-medicine and public health education, coordinating regional food security efforts, making government-sponsored agricultural extension services more effective and accessible to rural farmers, and enabling more rural children, adolescents and post-secondary students to receive an education, among others.
Applications development: Communication-based applications are being designed and implemented in rural areas of developing countries by a wide variety of actors in addition to public telecommunication operators (PTOs). A significant portion of the expertise required to develop sustainable, connectivity-enabled applications for rural areas is located within the professional, academic, business and agricultural sectors, among others. Not only do schools, universities, government departments, international organizations and NGOs routinely design and implement customized applications, they also independently purchase and set up information technology (IT) equipment. As a result, public telecommunication operators are increasingly required to support a heterogeneous mixture of networks, protocols and bandwidth requirements away from urban centers.
The need for basic literacy, computers skills and training in the use of ICT applications remains a significant challenge for rural areas. Language barriers and the complexity of personal computer (PC) operation have been shown to hinder Internet diffusion. Many innovative schemes have been devised in rural areas to overcome these barriers. Although not widely utilized, techniques such as voice mail, translation of content, and icon-based telephones indicate that foreign languages and illiteracy are not necessarily barriers to the use of communications services, if the end user's needs are comprehended and addressed. Relevant content is extremely critical to the success of any rural application.
Community and business development: A great deal of progress is being made in rural community and business development through the introduction of telephony, telecenters, e-mail, and radio broadcasts. For example, an infoDev-sponsored organization named PeopLink has established an e-commerce program allowing local artisans in developing countries to bypass middlemen and market their products directly to first world consumers. Two of the key requirements for the success of community and business development applications were found to be local language support and the availability of relevant content.
Telemedicine: The motivation and commitment to telemedicine in developing countries is very strong. This motivation is often backed by a willingness to pay for systems which are expected to improve health outcomes and lower medical costs in the long run. Telemedicine services may be perceived as more of a necessity in developing countries than they are in the industrialized countries, resulting in a greater willingness among the former to change established methods of doctor-patient interaction and health care administration.
Telemedicine and telehealth applications are not limited exclusively to expensive, high bandwidth services. As long as the local medical community remains motivated and committed to implementing telemedicine and telehealth programs, there are a wide range of health benefits that can be achieved through remote patient monitoring and diagnosis, multimedia communication links between urban and remote facilities, and broadcast of health information over radio and television.
Distance Education: Unsurprisingly, the focus group found that university-level distance education programs lend themselves to cross-border implementation. Using distribution by satellite or Internet, the adminstrative costs of running distance education courses can be spread over a very wide potential student base. A number of existing programs, such as the African Virtual University (AVU) and the distance education network of the University of the South Pacific (USPNet), are already based on the concept of cross-border educational access.
Focus Group 7 Findings on Technologies
Problems with installation and maintenance of wire plant have prompted the widespread use of wireless systems in rural areas. Nine types of wireless access systems were identified through the case studies and ITU activities, illustrating existing and emerging access options for reaching rural communities. Given the trend toward shared facilities such as telecenters, university extension centers, post office kiosks, etc., as well as the variety of revenue models associated with social services in the health, educational and e-commerce fields, the focus group considered technologies which expanded the number of supportable applications as well as those which demonstrated lower per-line costs.
Demand for Internet-based telecommunication applications in rural areas, particularly e-mail, has resulted in new applications of old technologies, such as VHF radio systems and meteor burst communications, for non-real time services. In addition, new combinations of existing technologies are extending the reach and flexibility of wireless access systems, as well as reducing total costs through the integration of shared systems and components. In particular, many rural operators are deploying very small aperture terminals (VSATs) and point-to-multipoint terrestrial radio systems integrated with wireless local loop systems based on standards such as PHS and DECT.
Access options on the horizon for rural areas include a number of technologies that are new to the rural marketplace or still under development.
▪ Cdma450 and GSM400 cellular base stations implemented in the 450 MHz range are scheduled for commercial introduction in 2001. The use of the lower frequency bands will enable each base station to cover approximately double the area achieved by existing digital cellular base stations operating in the 800-900 MHz frequency range.
▪ Third generation cellular systems, known as IMT-2000, are designed to deliver a wide range of traffic types and volumes more efficiently and inexpensively than the current generation of wired and cellular telephony networks.
▪ Gateways based on ITU-T Recommendation H.323 support real-time, two-way communications between local area networks (LANs) and the PSTN. Such gateways offer developing countries the option of constructing local and wide area networks to deliver telephony and other services in rural areas, without undermining existing investments in the PSTN.
▪ Wireless router networks, integrated with IP telephony software, have the potential to provide significant cost savings and social benefits as multi-service application platforms for telecenters, government offices, schools and other organizations in rural areas. Since these technologies are largely untested in rural areas, Focus Group 7 recommends that BDT conduct pilot projects aimed at confirming the technologies' robustness in rural environments and effectiveness in dealing with multimedia applications such as telemedicine, distance learning and so forth.
Information technology and multimedia terminals: It is of the utmost importance that ITU-D strive to raise awareness of the rural information and communication needs of developing countries within the computing and information technology industry. Unlike the telecommunications industry, which has been doing business in underdeveloped rural areas for several decades, companies in the IT sector are generally unfamiliar with the environmental and social requirements of rural areas of developing countries. Multimedia systems profiled by Focus Group 7, some of which were only launched during the period in which the report was written between June and August 2000, demonstrate many features with potential lifetime cost savings for rural areas. For example, information appliances supporting e-mail, World Wide Web (WWW) browsing and e-commerce applications provide simplified user interfaces in packages with fewer maintenance requirements than traditional PCs. Internet client network solutions can offer Internet service providers (ISPs) the ability to upgrade their rural customers' browser and applications software remotely, reducing the skills requirements for telecenter operators and rural schools. Finally, technical institutes and R&D organizations in developing countries such as India and Indonesia are developing their own custom, low cost IT terminals and devices.
Renewable energy solutions: The lack of mains energy supply in many rural and remote areas is a major obstacle to deploying telecommunication infrastructure. Many governments, agencies, and NGOs are currently working to support broader or massive use of telecommunications and IT systems in unelectrified rural areas As a result, Focus Group 7 recommends that governments, administrations and recognized operating agencies consider closely linking renewable energy specialists with rural telecommunication and ICT initiatives.
In the past two decades, the most important use of renewable energy and hybrid systems in telecommunications has been for off-grid telecom repeaters. Due to the high cost of the repeater equipment, the critical role the repeaters play in the larger telecom networks, and the unattended nature of the systems, these power systems have been very carefully sized and designed using highly capable and experienced engineers. In contrast, the power requirements for user-side installations -- such as wireless local loop terminals, PCs and cellular handsets -- are relatively small. For such user-side equipment it will generally not be possible to rely upon the same approach to power system design as has been used for telecom repeater systems. Therefore, Focus Group 7 recommends that ITU-D support the efforts of the international renewable energy community by disseminating practical and useful information on small power systems for rural telecommunication installations to ITU-D members, project partners and other organizations.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The report of the Maitland Commission, issued seventeen years ago, set a goal to bring telephone services within easy reach of all humankind before the 21st century. In order to remain consistent with this goal after a decade of tremendous expansion in the social applications of information and communication technologies, an update of the target proposed by the Maitland Commission is recommended.
In support of the goal of promoting the development of new telecommunication technologies for rural applications, FG7 offers the following six recommendations:
1) Promote the development of low-cost information appliances for rural use.
2) Create a renewable energy handbook on small-scale power systems for rural ICTs.
3) Increase collaboration with micro-finance organizations to help develop communication-based rural businesses and applications.
4) Conduct pilot projects of packet-based wireless access infrastructure for multimedia applications.
5) Maintain and expand the FG7 Web site.
6) Hold a symposium on new technologies for rural applications.
The Focus Group 7 also proposed the creation of a Task Force, consisting of a small group of volunteers among the ITU-D Study Group members to assist the BDT Director with the implementation of FG7 recommendations. The mandate of the Task Force may include:
• Monitor implementation progress of all FG7 recommendations;
• Formulate suggested criteria for the establishment and location of pilot projects;
• Contribute to cross-communication and coordination efforts among all parties.
Based on extensive research by Focus Group 7, this report concludes that there is a need for robust telecommunication systems combining low-cost, wireless access technologies with packet-based networks for the possible delivery of Internet in rural and remote areas. Such systems are deemed likely to hold various advantages for the provision of information-based applications in rural areas. As the concept of universal access expands to include services that are more complex than traditional voice and fax telephony, the development of shared-use, easily maintained multimedia terminals for community centers must be explored in order to find socially effective solutions for providing Internet in rural areas.
SECTION 1: BACKGROUND AND GOALS OF FOCUS GROUP 7 (FG7)
1.1 Mission statement
| |
|“Study various mechanisms by which to promote the development of new telecommunication technologies for rural applications” |
1.2 Objectives
The second World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) at Valetta, Malta, in March 1998, called attention to the need for the development of new technologies designed to meet the needs of developing countries. Comments from the developing countries had been voiced for many years regarding the Union's allocation of resources for standardization activities with primary applicability to developed countries. It was felt that developing countries were forced to purchase unnecessarily expensive telecommunications equipment made for the high standards of developed countries. A proposal for ITU to tackle the problem was adopted in principle as Topic 7 of Chapter 2, Annex 1A, Action Plan of the Valetta WTDC.
The goal of the proposal was to create a new framework for the development of rural communications by seeking out new technologies that consider the environments, economic conditions, and needs of developing nations. These technologies would be standardized and delivered directly by the suppliers to the developing countries. In March 1999, at the meeting of the ITU-D Telecommunication Development Advisory Group (TDAG), it was agreed that Topic 7 should be executed as the task of a Focus Group (FG7). For the Focus Group's management, the Japanese Administration provided voluntary financial contributions and an expert to serve as rapporteur for the Focus Group.
The terms of reference approved by TDAG with regard to Focus Group 7 are included in Annex 1.
1.3 Definition of rural and remote areas
Focus Group 7 has based its work on the definition of rural and remote areas stated in the Report on Question 4/2 of ITU-D Study Group 2, first study period (1995-1998):
Traditionally, the term rural is applied to the countryside or anything related to it. Rural is often used in opposition to urban. However, this is not the case here. For the purpose of this Report, the expression “rural and remote” (or just “rural”) refers to rural, isolated and poorly served areas by telecommunication facilities, where various factors interact to make the establishment of telecommunication services difficult. A rural area may consist of scattered settlements, villages or small towns, and may be located several hundreds of kilometres away from an urban or city centre. However, in some cases a suburban area may also be considered as rural.
A rural area exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:
– scarcity or absence of public facilities such as reliable electricity supply, water, access roads and regular transport;
– scarcity of technical personnel;
– difficult topographical conditions, e.g. lakes, rivers, hills, mountains or deserts, which render the construction of wire telecommunication networks very costly;
– severe climatic conditions that make critical demands on the equipment;
– low level of economic activity mainly based on agriculture, fishing, handicrafts, etc.;
– low per capita income;
– underdeveloped social infrastructures (health, education, etc.);
– low population density;
– very high calling rates per telephone line, reflecting the scarcity of telephone service and the fact that large numbers of people rely on a single telephone line.
These characteristics make it difficult to provide public telecommunication services of acceptable quality by traditional means at affordable prices, while also achieving commercial viability for the service provider [41].
1.4 FG7 work methodology
The Focus Group created a global case library for the following 3 types of project reports:
1. Ongoing projects using technologies specially designed for rural and remote areas of developing countries, including Multipurpose Community Telecenters, Tele-medicine and Tele-education;
2. Planned projects that make new combinations of technologies to meet the needs of rural and remote areas, such as satellite communications linked with wireless local loop (WLL) networks;
3. Examples of how equipment has been adapted for use in particular, harsh climatic or other conditions of rural and remote areas, such as solar-powered telephones.
Based on the data gathered through its homepage, , and taking account of the work of Study Group 2 (SG2), focus group members were requested to:
a. Select those types of projects or systems that have social or economic importance but limited commercial profitability, so that the ITU can focus special support upon such projects in helping to develop technology for rural and remote applications;
b. Recommend new measures to be taken by ITU-D to encourage manufacturers and relevant organizations to create technology tailored to the needs of developing countries;
c. Among those measures, recommend priorities that ITU-D should follow to help achieve the development of technology for rural and remote applications;
1.5 Activities 1999-2000
Three Focus Group 7 meetings were held, on 16 June 1999, 7 September 1999 and 28 February 2000, respectively. The first meeting dealt with the terms of reference of the Focus Group, its work plan and work methods as well as the database design. During the second meeting it was announced that the design of the Website had been completed. The content of the database was discussed in detail, and the Focus Group members and participants were urged to contribute reports. The third meeting reviewed the Interim Report of the Focus Group, discussed progress in the collection of case studies and considered topics for the final report and recommendations to Study Group 2.
Focus Group 7's activities have been conducted mainly through a virtual forum based on the web site, . A total of 80 people both from developing and developed countries registered in the membership of FG7, as listed in Annex 4. Visitors to the Web site generated approximately 10,000 hits per month. FG7 collected over 50 case reports of different technology applications in various countries.
From November 1999 to May 2000, on-line discussions were carried out on four topics: Community Development, Telehealth / Telemedicine, Developing Support for Small Businesses, and Emergency Support & Disaster Mitigation. A planned discussion on Tele-education was unsuccessful due to lack of participation, and a second planned discussion on Environmental Monitoring & Protection was cancelled due to the last-minute unavailability of the moderator.
On April 13, 2000 a roundtable on rural communications, established with Focus Group 7 support, was held at the ITU Americas 2000 Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Focus Group 7 members assisted in the identification of experts to participate in the roundtable and the FG7 rapporteur acted as the briefing officer for the session. The roundtable discussion provided valuable information to the Focus Group regarding the profitability of rural and remote telecommunications in Latin American countries.
Based on the various technologies and their applications collected in the case library and discussions, Focus Group 7 presents its conclusions in this report on the recommended ways to promote the development of technologies for rural and remote applications, and measures to be considered by the ITU for the development of telecommunications in rural and remote areas.
1.6 Report scope and methodology
The purpose of this report is to present the essential points of the Focus Group 7 case library; canvas the technologies that have been used, or are anticipated for use, in rural and remote areas; and recommend refinements, enhancements and new directions in the development of such technologies.
Access networks and terminal equipment are the network segments most strongly impacted by the characteristics of rural and remote areas. Therefore, this report focuses on access and end-user equipment and their interfaces, leaving the issue of core networks to ITU-D Study Group 2, Question 10: Communications for rural and remote areas; and to ITU-D Study Group 1, Question 13/1: Promotion of infrastructure and use of the Internet in developing countries. A number of computing terminals are profiled in this report but, in keeping with the ITU focus on telecommunications, we have included only those information technologies that are enabled for connectivity.
Methodology
Focus Group 7 chose applications as the starting point for its identification of information and communications technologies used in rural and remote areas. From the list of applications, on the one hand, and the available technologies, on the other, this report seeks to identify gaps between the information and communication services needed in rural and remote areas, and the technical solutions offered by existing technologies at the low end of the cost spectrum (see Figure 1.1).
The technologies mentioned in this report were identified through the case studies as well as supplemental research efforts by BDT staff. The inclusion or omission of any specific technology(-ies) does not imply any judgement, either positive or negative, on the part of Focus Group 7 or the ITU. Suggestions for technologies not covered would be gratefully accepted by the BDT secretariat for consideration in future updates of this Report.
[pic]
Figure 1.1: FG7 conceptual approach
It is an assumption of this report that the selection of technologies for rural applications ought to be based on criteria weighted according to the needs, culture, budget and physical environment, among other characteristics, of each planned deployment. The focus group identified a number of criteria along these lines, including:
Infrastructure
▪ Ease of Installation
▪ Ease of Operation & Maintenance
▪ Tolerance of environmental extremes
Energy
▪ Level of power consumption
▪ Compatibility with off-grid energy solutions
Social Benefit
▪ Variety and flexibility of service applications
▪ Support for local language(s)
▪ Skills and/or training required by end users (including literacy)
Cost
▪ Modularity and scalability
▪ Compliance with recognized standards
▪ Initial and lifetime costs
▪ "Future proof" technology evolution
The affordability of services to the end user, while extremely important to the realization of social benefit, is not primarily a function of technology, so it is not included among the criteria in the social benefit category.
SECTION 2: TRENDS IN RURAL AND REMOTE APPLICATIONS
The Focus Group 7 case library, consisting of some 50 papers, contains examples of the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support rural economic development, health, distance education, emergency support, and disaster relief. Although the nature of the case library is anecdotal, several trends present themselves for possible future study and examination.
2.1 The role of telecommunications in rural areas[i]
Of more than 3.5 billion inhabitants in the world's low income countries, approximately 72% live in rural areas[ii] [25]. Rural areas can generally be characterised by low population density and long distances between settlement areas. Due to unfavourable geographic and climatic conditions, access from urban centres to rural areas, and vice versa, is often difficult.
Further disadvantages of rural areas are:
– Low educational level, high illiteracy rate
– Hardly any job opportunities
– Low income per capita and per family
– Increasing migration of the young to urban centres
– Unreliable and badly functioning (public) transport
– Irregular, if any, power supply
– Poor health care and medical services
– Lack of other government services
– Little participation in national affairs.
The basic objectives to which telecommunications services have to contribute are to trigger and sustain structural and economic development, to minimize the above mentioned disadvantages and to generally improve the quality of life in rural and remote areas.
The Valetta Action Plan (VAP), formulated at the second World Telecommunication Development Conference in March 1998, sought to promote universal access to basic telecommunications, broadcasting and Internet as tools for development in rural and remote areas. Focus Group 7 has spent a year researching technological developments that have the potential to support rural applications which are either commercially viable or sustainable through other financing mechanisms.
Annual public expenditure on health and education in the world's low income countries is estimated at more than US$100 billion [25]. Where the cost and/or outcomes of these expenditures can be improved through the use of telecommunications, access to appropriate infrastructure becomes not only a human right, but a financial necessity.
New industries and other commercial operations are attracted only to places where telecommunications are at hand. Unserved rural areas will, therefore, develop only slowly, if at all, thus contributing to the acceleration of unwanted rural to urban migration. One of several preconditions to reverse this trend is the availability of telecommunication services and applications.
Other benefits of telecommunications concern security, the elimination of feelings of isolation and insecurity in rural villages as well as improvement of government administration. Public administration becomes more effective with telecommunications because it relies heavily on co-ordination between central headquarters, regional and local offices as well as individual government officers in outlying districts.
It has turned out, though, that the full impact of improved telecommunications comes only to bear if road conditions are also improved. Many of the most critical factors that enable rural areas to benefit from technology lie beyond the network and its elements. Sustainable business models, political will, skills training and education are just as critical - if not more so - than selecting the most appropriate technology from among a range of reasonable technology alternatives.
Focus Group 7 recognizes the prime importance of the human factor in economic development, but has limited the scope of its investigation to the segment in which ITU can provide the greatest contribution: that of raising awareness about the range and capabilities of information and telecommunication technologies.
2.2 Developers of communications-based applications
The Focus Group 7 case library indicates that telecommunications-based applications are being designed and implemented by a wide variety of actors in addition to public telecommunications operators (PTOs). A significant portion of the expertise required to develop sustainable, communications-based applications for rural areas is located within the professional, academic, business and agricultural sectors, among others. The case library contains examples of applications introduced by physicians, educators, community organizations and governments.
Table 2.1 lists over 30 applications of telecommunications services in rural areas, illustrating some of the specialized applications developed by non-telecommunications organizations. Not only do schools, universities, government departments, international organizations and NGOs routinely design and implement customized applications, they also independently purchase and set up information technology (IT) equipment. As a result, public telecommunications operators are increasingly required to support a hetergeneous mixture of networks, protocols and bandwidth requirements in rural areas.
When telephones are installed in isolated communities outside the context of a third-party project, the onus falls on the telephone service provider to raise awareness among the rural inhabitants of its potential applications. Global Village Telecom (GVT), a rural telephone operator, has found that it can take a substantial amount of time for isolated villages in South America to generate average payphone traffic levels.
When a rural village receives its first public telephone, the inhabitants often do not have many ones to call. This is particularly the case when the inhabitants have few commercial or social links outside the village, or when they believe that those they would wish to call don't have telephone access. GVT and other operators have found that both the service provider and local authorities can take steps to encourage the local population to use the telephone,
Examples of such initiatives include:
• Posting the phone numbers of frequently-used local vendors in the telephone booth or telecenter;
• Offering voice mail messaging to residents who cannot afford their own line;
• Creating a phone-based, interactive voice response (IVR) service providing relevant market information in a local language;
• Organizing inter- and intra-regional public fairs, sports events and school championships that require coordination among a number of villages;
• Creating a directory of rural telephone numbers to encourage inbound calls from relatives and friends working abroad and in urban areas.
Only the most isolated communities tend to require such basic encouragement. The opposite problem, that of demand quickly outstripping network capacity, is common in small towns and rural trading centers. For example, when cellular phone service became available in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu, which had only 30 telephone lines, more than one thousand subscribers registered for service within the first six weeks [32].
|Box 2.1: Examples of specialized rural applications |
|Community Development |Small Business Development |Education |
|Creation and dissemination of local content, |Browsing the Internet to explore new markets & |Delivery of multimedia content to remote areas |
|such as a multilingual web site for children |investigate new suppliers |(CD-ROM-type materials, video) |
|Delivery of personal messages via radio |E-commerce / tele-boutique for local artisans |Live classroom instruction using |
|broadcasting in areas with no telephone service|Improving logistics, such as pre-arranging |videoconferencing facilities |
|Dissemination of information about government |delivery and payment details before undertaking|On-line academic database & bibliographic |
|programs, subsidies and administrative matters |travel with goods |access |
|Enhancing regional cooperation through |Icon-based telephone sets used to obtain market|Professional networking by educators through |
|information exchange between local rural radio |information from an interactive voice response |e-mail and online discussion groups |
|stations |system |Radio broadcasts of educational content: |
|Group listening to radio broadcasts: special |Point-of-sale applications in remote tourist |environment, health, science |
|interests, sports, entertainment |outposts |Submitting tests via e-mail |
|Keeping in touch with family and friends |Recording and sending delivery confirmations |Undergraduate degree programs via distance |
|working in cities or abroad |Transport vehicle fleet tracking |education |
|Population registration and voting | |Web browsing for teaching and learning |
| | |materials |
|Health & Medicine |Environmental Monitoring & Protection |Emergency Support & Disaster Relief |
|Delivery of health information to medical |Environmental information storage and exchange |Calling police, fire, ambulance |
|professionals in the field |on the WWW |Emergency assistance following vehicle |
|Delivery of prevention-oriented health |Remote monitoring & alarm |breakdown |
|information to rural communities |Supervisory control and data acquisition |Locating & rescuing victims during an emergency|
|Entry of patient data in remote databases |(SCADA) |Radio broadcasts of urgent content: disease |
|Access to medical specialists via |Telemetry (remote data acquisition and |outbreaks, disaster warnings, instructions for |
|tele-consultation |recording) |refugees |
|Teleradiology, remote ultrasound, ECG cardiac |Satellite-based tracking of bush fires |Restablishing communications after a disaster |
|monitoring, etc. | |Remote monitoring to alert of potential natural|
| | |disasters |
Source: Collated from the FG7 case library
Table 2.1: Examples of specialized rural applications
2.3 End-user skills and training
The need for basic literacy, computers skills and training in the use of information and communication technologies remains a significant barrier to uptake of telephone, e-mail and Internet-based applications in rural areas. Language barriers and the complexity of personal computer (PC) operation also hinder Internet diffusion.
Many innovative schemes have been devised in rural areas to overcome these barriers. Although not widely utilized, techniques such as voice mail, local translation of content, and icon-based telephones indicate that foreign languages and illiteracy are not necessarily barriers to the use of communications services, if the end user's needs are comprehended and addressed.
For example, radio broadcasters in Sri Lanka regularly search the Internet for interesting information and broadcast what they find to the community in the local language [26]. RiSTi, the research and development arm of Telkom Indonesia, developed a simple icon-based telephone set for use with an interactive voice response (IVR) system providing market and educational information [58].
When telephones are first introduced in very isolated rural and remote communities, villagers may require some time to become familiar with the basic functions of the telephone and the reasons to use it. Leaving the phone off the hook is one common error; developing culturally acceptable ways to converse by phone, with due attention to the need for brevity imposed by costs, is another.
Skills required for Internet access
The use of personal computers (PCs) to provide Internet access for educational, business and telemedicine applications requires on-site personnel with relatively advanced skill sets in computer operation and software configuration. A UNESCO-sponsored pilot project at teacher training colleges in Zimbabwe found that low computer literacy rates, high turnover in computer resource personnel and limited access to the PCs had a negative impact on use of the Internet for curriculum development, despite training programs offered on Windows 95, Internet browsing and e-mail [12].
Computer resource managers involved in the UNESCO pilot project identified PC hardware configuration as the most difficult task they faced. The absence of local expertise in computer operation and repair in the areas surrounding the colleges compounded the skills shortage. Given the difficulty with which computers were obtained, installed and maintained in these academic institutions, where basic literacy is a foregone conclusion, the problems associated with maintaining PCs in less specialized environments can be expected to be the same or worse.
2.4 Installation, operation & maintenance
Special shelters and temperature control systems are required to maintain electronic equipment and batteries in areas where temperatures routinely exceed 40º celsius or drop well below the freezing point. Inadequate and periodically impassable roads make travel between urban and rural areas for maintenance visits risky, time consuming and expensive.
The lack of mains energy supply in many rural and remote areas is a major obstacle to deploying telecommunications infrastructure. In addition to the cost of purchasing and installing an off-grid power system, the lifetime cost of maintaining the power supply must be absorbed by the telecommunications operator.
Problems with installation and maintenance of wire plant have prompted the widespread use of wireless systems in rural areas. Even with the use of wireless technology, however, unexpected logistical details encountered in the field can be responsible for significant cost overruns and delays of service activation.
For example, Telkom South Africa began implementing a large wireless local loop (WLL) rollout in underserved areas in 1997. A number of logistical challenges delayed the progress of the rollout, such as:
• Finding the most cost-effective way to survey sites, select appropriate antennas, and construct towers and masts for a large number of wireless installations;
• Negotiating rights-of-way with individual communities;
• Ensuring that customers did not unplug WLL terminal equipment in order to use the outlet for other purposes;
• Procuring sufficient solar panels, air conditioning units and equipment shelters from domestic manufacturers;
• Assigning coordinates to subscribers to compensate for inaccurate census data and the lack of an address system;
• Ensuring that the terminal equipment installed corresponded exactly to the identification numbers logged on the system.
Operating, powering and maintaining electronic end-user devices such as cellular phones and PCs in rural areas present additional challenges. Cellular phone batteries must be recharged on a regular basis. PCs require alternating current (AC) and protection from electricity surges in order to avoid damage to sensitive components. The facilities and expertise for handling these issues may not be available in rural areas, or they may be available but not at an affordable price for all but the largest businesses.
2.5 Information technology and microfinance institutions
The support of small business creation in poor areas through microloans - typically small loans of less than a few hundred dollars, given to poor individuals for the purpose of capitalizing small businesses - has revolutionized development practices around the world. Grameen Bank, the most widely recognized progenitor of the microlending approach, has developed a model for village phone businesses in Bangladesh.
In the FG7 case library, Grameen Telecom reported 950 village phones in service in Bangladesh as of November 1999[iii] [20]. In its first three years of operation, the Grameen Telecom experiment has been successful in creating profitable telephone service businesses in poor communities. According to a 1999 study, village phone operators earned a weekly profit ranging from -35 Taka (-USD0.069) to 683 Taka (USD13.42), for an average net profit of 277 Taka (USD5.45) per week [7].
Many microlending institutions look at Grameen as a model for new programs, and there is little question that other program developers in microlending agencies would be interested in the use of information technology products in conjunction with low-cost connectivity options to help fight poverty.
Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank microcredit program, floated a proposal before the World Bank in November 1999 to establish an "International Center for Information Technology To Eliminate Global Poverty." The technology and applications development functions of the proposed Center included:
• Creative design and implementation of prototypes of IT infrastructure, information systems and applications in the service of poverty elimination;
• Conducting analyses of IT requirements for health, education and anti-poverty efforts;
• Identification of the interfaces between the informational needs of the poor and IT capabilities, as the basis for proactive creation of applications.
Certain needs identified by Dr. Yunus are similar to those identified by Focus Group 7. One of the initial motivations for the Focus Group was the perception among ITU-D members that studying the technology was simply not enough to ensure a social benefit in rural and remote areas; one needed access to grassroots-level data on telecommunications applications and uses in order to design cost-effective technical solutions to real-world problems. Public telecommunication network operators also require partners at the local level to design and implement programs that encourage the beneficial use of the infrastructure that has been made available. Cooperation between microfinance institutions, the IT industry and telecommunications operators has the potential to provide significant benefits to all three parties.
SECTION 3: APPLICATION AREAS
3.1 Community and small business development
A great deal of progress is being made in rural community and business development through the introduction of telephony, telecenters, e-mail, and radio broadcasts. Table 3.1 lists the case studies in the FG7 case library which focus primarily on community and business development applications. Case studies on access infrastructure designed to extend plain old telephone service (POTS) to rural and remote areas are included in this category.
In addition to the examples profiled in the case library, there are many other cases where the use of telecommunications has led to quantitative benefits for rural communities. For example, an infoDev-sponsored organization named PeopLink has established an e-commerce program allowing local artisans in developing countries to bypass middlemen and market their products directly to first world consumers[iv]. In the 1999 South African elections, electronic transmission of voter registration data and election results from rural and remote areas helped to reinforce South Africa's democratic institutions[v].
Two of the key requirements for community and business development applications were found to be local language support and the availability of relevant content. Relevant content, in particular, is extremely critical to the success of rural communications projects. A number of Internet- and e-mail-based discussion groups focus on the development of local content, such as the African web content e-mail discussion list[vi] and other independent discussions. The value of ICT equipment is realized only when the community is able to use it to achieve social goals.
3.2 Telemedicine / telehealth
Table 3.2 lists the reports in the FG7 case library focusing mainly on telemedicine.
One of the central lessons for the focus group on telemedicine has been that the motivation and commitment to telemedicine in developing countries is very strong. This motivation is often backed by a willingness to pay for systems which are expected to improve health outcomes and lower medical costs in the long run. Telemedicine services may be perceived as more of a necessity in developing countries than they are in the industrialized countries, resulting in a greater willingness among the former to change established methods of doctor-patient interaction and health care administration.
Telemedicine and telehealth applications are not limited exclusively to expensive, high bandwidth services. As long as the local medical community remains motivated and committed to implementing telemedicine and telehealth programs, there are a wide range of health benefits that can be achieved through remote patient monitoring and diagnosis, multimedia communication links between urban and remote facilities, and broadcast of health information over radio and television.
Table 3.1: FG7 case library reports on community and small business development
|Application |Description |Case study title |
|POTS |Field trial of a VSAT-wireless local loop solution to provide service to |The Intelsat WLL/VSAT Rural Telephony Trial in |
| |remote areas requiring between 20-500 lines. |Peru [24] |
|POTS |Telephone service supplied in underserved areas using TDMA point-to-point|Telkom South Africa's TDMA / DECT Wireless Local|
| |microwave systems with DECT wireless local loop tails. |Loop Deployment [16] |
|POTS |Income generation for poor rural inhabitants through small village phone |Grameen Telecom in Bangladesh [20] |
| |businesses financed by microloans. | |
|POTS |Providing remote industrial sites with telephone service to attract and |The MPTC DCTS Pilot Project (Cambodia) [33] |
| |keep investors, businesses and employment. | |
|POTS |Providing telephone services to residents of 5,000 farming villages |Rural Public Long Distance Telephone Project |
| |located throughout Thailand, using TDMA point-to-multipoint systems with |(Thailand) [44] |
| |PHS-based wireless local loop tails. | |
|E-mail |Describes a small rural telecenter based on a solar-powered handheld |"Type 0" Community Telecenters: Results of |
| |computer connected to a cellular handset. |Suriname Case Study [19] |
|Telephony |Improving the quality and number of telephone circuits connecting the |Paraguay: Rural Network Trial Using VSATs [39] |
|Data circuits |capital of Paraguay, Asunción, with rural areas. | |
|Data circuits |Trial using wireless local loop systems to speed provision of |Paraguay: Rural High-Speed Data Transmission |
| |international high-speed digital leased circuits. |Using WLL [38] |
|Interactive Voice |Telephone-accessed interactive voice response system providing |IVR Application as a Voice-based Information |
|Response |information on agriculture, fishery, animal husbandry, health, education,|Service for Rural Communities (Indonesia) [58] |
| |home industry, tourism, and market prices. | |
|TV, Radio |TV, radio broadcasting and POTS services supplied via a cheap, flexible, |Greenland's Large Remotely Located Satellite |
|POTS |remotely-controlled satellite earth station. |Earth Stations [31] |
|Radio |Use of community radio broadcasting stations as the focal point for local|Internet Radio in Sri Lanka [26] |
|Internet access |Internet access. | |
|Telephony |Creation of rural e-businesses in conjunction with local multi-purpose |Multipurpose community telecentre (MCT) pilot |
|training |community telecenters, enabling local businesses to advertise on the |project (Honduras) [6] |
|e-commerce |Internet. | |
|Telephony, e-mail, |Voice telephony and multimedia services delivered to rural and remote |A Wireless IP Phone System for Rural |
|Internet, |communities through a modular, IP-based wireless access system. |Applications [45] |
|IP broadcasting | | |
|Internet access |Pilot projects of a business model aimed at supporting profitable |Greenstar Community Centers for Economic |
|e-commerce |business development by supplying basic renewable electric power, |Development [21] |
|education telemedicine |wireless communications and micro-finance to carefully selected villages.| |
|ISDN |Basic and advanced PSTN services provided through remote line |Compact Remote Line Concentrator System for |
|Centrex |concentrators (RLC) installed close to the areas of subscriber demand, |Rural Applications in China [11] |
|POTS |thus reducing initial investment and copper loop costs. | |
Source: FG7 case library
The telemedicine reports in the FG7 case library describe two national approaches taken to provide medical care in rural and remote areas. South Africa is developing a national program of PC-based telemedicine stations to provide medical services such as ultrasound, pre-natal screening, tele-radiology and tele-optometry. The stations will contain some mobile components which can be brought into the field in a radius around the community centers where the telemedicine stations are housed [15].
Greenland's national telemedicine experience highlighted some of the factors that must be weighed when choosing the communications infrastructure to support a far-flung network. After experimenting with medical tele-consultations over ISDN lines, Greenland decided to implement a more flexible solution running on a dedicated IP-based network of routers connected with wireless links (a "routernet"). The network supports a web-style interface for information and data transmission as well as videoconferencing for live consultations [28].
Table 3.2: FG7 case library reports on telemedicine / telehealth
|Application |Description |Case study title |
|Dissemination of |Health-oriented digital satellite radio broadcasting service designed to |WorldSpace Digital Satellite Radio and |
|health information |assist medical professionals in Africa, created by the WorldSpace |Multimedia Services [57] |
| |Foundation and Satellife. | |
|Cardiac monitoring and|Transmission of electro-cardiogram (ECG) data via a simple telephone line,|Jordan: Transtelephonic |
|care |allowing remote diagnosis of a patient's heart condition. |electro-cardiogram (ECG) transmission [59]|
|Video consultations |Rural telemedicine services based on low-cost videophones, sustained |Videophone Telemedicine Project in |
| |without operational subsidies from the government. |Indonesia [56] |
| |Remote diagnosis of high-quality medical images transmitted via ISDN lines|Implementation of Telemedicine in the |
|Teleradiology |to experts in major urban hospitals, nationally and abroad. |Republic of Mauritius [47] |
|Remote access to |Dedicated IP-based telemedicine network (known as a "routernet") |Telemedicine in Greenland [28] |
|medical specialists |connecting isolated towns with a primary care facility in the capital | |
| |city. Services include live video consultations and store-and-forward of | |
| |X-ray and ECG data. | |
|Home-based monitoring |Regular monitoring of elderly patients in a remote village through |ISDN Telemedicine in Japan [27] |
|for the elderly |videophone and health monitoring devices installed in their homes. | |
|Primary and specialty |Delivery of telemedicine services to the rural and remote population using|The South Africa National Telemedicine |
|health care in rural |mobile telemedicine work stations based in Multipurpose Community Centers.|System Pilot Project [15] |
|areas |Planned services include teleradiology, pre-natal screening, | |
| |tele-pathology and tele-opthalmololgy. | |
Source: FG7 case library
Under the auspices of the ITU, a pilot project using transtelephonic electro-cardiogram (ECG) monitoring devices was conducted in 1999 by the Guli Cardiological Clinic in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. The device, illustrated in Figure 3.1, typically costs between US$200 and US$700 and is used to record a patient's cardiac data, which can then be transmitted via a standard telephone line to a medical facility for evaluation.
Figure 3.1: Trans-telephonic ECG monitoring device
[pic]
Source: "Telemedicine and developing countries - lessons learned," ITU-D Study Group 2, Document 2/116-E, 27 August 1999.
The pilot project in Georgia concluded that the ECG records produced in the trials were of sufficient quality for medical practitioners to interpret, even when transmitted over telephone lines considered by the users to be of low quality [52]. In Jordan, the use of similar trans-telephonic devices during a three-month trial resulted in savings of $167,500 by reducing unnecessary hospital referrals [59].
3.3 Distance education / tele-education
Basic literacy, education and vocational training are extremely critical to economic development. The potential benefits of distance education can hardly be overstated. Table 3.3 lists the case studies in the FG7 case library focusing primarily on distance education or tele-education.
Two reports in the FG7 case library indicate that degree programs offered to university-level students over satellite links lend themselves to cross-border distribution. Twelve island nations in the South Pacific jointly created a satellite-based university extension program called USPNet. Meanwhile, the African Virtual University is able to offer courses developed and taught by leading universities in twelve sub-Saharan countries.
The ITU uses distance education as a means of providing ongoing training to telecommunications engineers and regulators around the world. The ITU Human Resources Development program offers distance education courses through the Virtual Training Centre and the Global Telecommunication University/Global Telecommunication Training Institute (GTU/GTTI).
Table 3.3: FG7 case library reports on tele-education / distance education
|Application |Description |Source |
|Teacher training and |Promoting collaboration and skills development among the teaching |Creating Learning Networks for African |
|curriculum development|community by electroncially linking educational planners, researchers, and|Teachers [12] |
| |teachers to each other and to educational resources through the Internet. | |
|Undergraduate degree |Provision of full-credit courses and complete undergraduate degree |African Virtual University of the World |
|programs |programs through videotaped and live classroom lectures which are |Bank [13] |
| |broadcast from uplink facilities in the U.S. and distributed by partner | |
| |institutions in sub-Saharan Africa. | |
|Televised instruction |Televised instruction accompanied by interaction with instructors over |Rural Telecommunications for Development: |
| |telephone lines, supplemented by e-mail and web based materials, for |Lessons from the Alaskan Experience [23] |
| |students in rural and remote areas. | |
|University extension |Closed satellite communication network implemented by the University of |Distance Education System via Satellite |
|program |the South Pacific to support a full-scale distance education system for |Communication Network in the South Pacific|
| |students on 12 islands, scattered over several million square kilometers |USPNet [14] |
| |in the South Pacific Ocean. | |
Source: FG7 case library
3.4 Emergency support and disaster relief
The moderator of the FG7 discussion group on emergency support and disaster relief, Mark Wood, highlighted the need for advance planning on how to mitigate communications network overload under emergency or disaster conditions, such as pre-emption schemes in GSM and fixed wireline networks.
Only one case study in the FG7 case library focused exclusively on disaster relief (see Table 3.4). However, a number of case studies touched on prevention-oriented communications systems to alert inhabitants of potential disasters, communications systems that can be rapidly installed or restored after a natural or man-made disaster, and the basic utility of telecommunications for contacting police, fire, ambulance and other energency service providers.
Table 3.4: FG7 case library reports on emergency support & disaster relief
|Application |Description |Case Study Title |
|Disaster communications |A multi-hazard disaster management communications system based on VSATs |Maharashtra Communication Network For |
| |and VHF systems in the Indian state of Maharashtra |Disaster Management [10] |
|Delivering information |Distribution of over 7000 wind-up radios to victims of massive flooding |Emergency Communications in Mozambique |
|to displaced victims |in Mozambique for receiving vital information on weather, missing family|[17] |
| |members, government policy, location of landmines, disposal of | |
| |carcasses, etc. | |
Source: FG7 case library
3.5 Environmental monitoring and protection
Due to the last-minute unavailability of the discussion moderator for environmental issues, this online discussion was cancelled. No contributions on environmental applications were submitted to the case library. However, Table 3.5 below provides a number of environmental monitoring and protection applications which either involve or impact rural and remote areas.
Table 3.5: Examples of environmental monitoring and protection applications
|Application |Description |Source |
|Storage and |Establishment of a terrestrial and space telecommunication infrastructure |ITU/BDT Pilot Project No.1, |
|distribution of data |supporting a distributed data system for the "Elbiiâ 21" integrated |
|on sustainable |information system on the environment and sustainable development in |/environment/activities.htm |
|development |Tunisia. | |
|Remote monitoring of |Establishment of a satellite-based network for the remote monitoring of |ITU/BDT Pilot Project No.2, |
|sea water quality |sea water quality |
| | |/environment/activities.htm |
|Regional environmental|Internet information server on the environment of the countries of the |ITU/BDT Pilot Project No.5, |
|information server |South Mediterranean, providing data on water, air quality and solid wastes|
| |in each country. |/environment/activities.htm |
|National environmental|National environmental information web site to raise public awareness of |Consortium for International Earth Science|
|web site |environmental issues and reinforce the participation of civil society in |Information Network (CIESIN). |
| |environmental decision-making. |
Source: ITU, Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
SECTION 4: ACCESS INFRASTRUCTURE
Nine types of wireless access systems, identified through the case studies and ITU activities, are presented in this section. These brief profiles are intended to raise awareness of new or recent developments in the field of access technologies for rural areas. Some profiles describe new applications of old technologies, such as using VHF radio or meteor burst communications to transmit e-mail. Others provide examples of recent technology combinations which have been tested in rural areas, such as very small aperture terminals (VSATs) integrated with wireless local loop systems. The remaining profiles introduce a number of technologies that are new to the rural marketplace or still under development, such as IMT-2000 and wireless router-based access systems. For a comprehensive technical treatment of wireless access technologies for deployment in rural and remote areas, the reader is invited to refer to the ITU-R Handbook on Fixed Wireless Access, and other ITU reference materials.
4.1 Narrowband packet radio
VHF and UHF radio systems have a long history of usage for voice communications in rural areas, due to their low cost and ease of installation. Nowadays, amateur radio clubs use narrowband packet radio systems to access the Internet in a wireless and inexpensive manner, benefiting from the volume production of radios specially designed for this purpose. Packet radio nodes are used in several countries to establish regional networks, such as the Central American Packet Radio Network (CAPRA), a wireless backbone extending from Guatemala to Panama[vii].
A packet radio network uses a transceiver, a terminal node controller (TNC), an antenna and a power source as a basic repeater configuration. The radio transceiver used in packet radio is the same as that used in voice communication. Instead of a voice grade modem, however, packet radio uses the terminal node controller to adapt the signals between the personal computer (PC) and the transceiver, and to perform packet assembly and disassembly (PAD) as defined in the Amateur Packet-Radio Link-Layer Protocol (AX.25). Several manufacturers now produce TNCs at prices ranging from approximately US$50 to $400.
A second mode of TNC operation, known as Keep it Short & Simple (KISS), leaves the PAD functions to software residing in the PC. KISS mode allows the use of protocols such as transmission control protocol / Internet protocol (TCP/IP). It is also possible to establish packet radio connection to a server in serial line Internet protocol (SLIP) mode, and therefore use Internet browsers such as Netscape Navigator. These possibilities make it feasible to use packet radio for common Internet applications.
The programming and operation of the TNC is quite simple and can be done using a simple terminal program or a software application with a graphic user interface and other options that make terminal station operation much easier. Most of these applications are low in cost, ranging from US$30 to $60, and are easily downloadable from several Internet sites. For simple terminal stations, several DOS applications have been developed, allowing old PCs such as a 386 PC to be used as a terminal.
The bandwidth limitations of packet radio networks are inherent to the low frequencies employed and the channels allocated. For example, a standard 12.5 kHz channel supports a data transmission rate of up to 1200 baud. New TNCs are available which allow users to transmit and receive at higher data rates by processing multiple frequency channels simultaneously and using faster microprocessors[viii].
Example of packet radio use in rural areas
The BDT is designing a pilot packet radio network to extend connectivity in the areas surrounding two multipurpose community telecenters (MCTs) in Central America. The MCTs, which were deployed under the Valetta Action Plan (VAP), are located in two small villages containing 2,000 and 3,500 inhabitants, respectively. These villages are surrounded by smaller villages of less than 300 inhabitants which lack telephone service, electricity and adequate road access.
The packet radio network will link "mini-MCTs," consisting of 1-2 personal computers (PCs) in an outlying village, to one of the full size MCTs. Each mini-MCT will use a 38,400-baud packet radio node establish a wireless link to a server at the nearest MCT. The mini-MCTs will be capable of providing all of the standard Internet-based services plus a set of customized services developed by the project partners in the areas of tele-health, tele-education, agriculture, emergency management and community messaging.
The cost of a basic repeater station for the planned pilot network is US$2210. The cost breakdown by component, listed in Box 4.1, reveals that the communications equipment is responsible for only about half of the cost while the power source accounts for nearly 45% of the total expense.
4.2 GSM 400
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has established a regional standard[ix] for the implementation of the Global System for Mobiles (GSM) in the 400 MHz band. The use of frequencies in the 400 MHz band, rather than the 900/1800 MHz bands, enables a wider area to be covered by each base station, as illustrated in Figure 4.2. Wide area coverage is better suited to low density rural populations spread over a wide area.
[pic]
Source: Ericsson
Figure 4.1: Comparitive range of GSM 400/900/1800
According to information submitted to the ITU by Ericsson, GSM 400 covers the same area as GSM 900 using approximately half the number of cell sites. A typical cell in the 400 MHz band has a 40 km radius when using 2-watt mobile phone units. Using higher gain or directional antennas, or with mobile phones of a higher power class, a longer range can be achieved depending on the geography and propagation conditions.
GSM 400 occupies frequency bands, indicated in Table 4.1, that were formerly allocated also in Europe and in many places for conventional Nordic mobile telephone (NMT) systems.
|Frequency bands |GSM 450 band: |
| |450.4 - 457.6 MHz uplink |
| |460.4 - 467.6 MHz downlink |
| |GSM 480 band: |
| |478.8 – 486 MHz uplink |
| |488.8 – 496 MHz downlink |
|Frequency spectrum |7 MHz |
|Duplex separation |10 MHz |
|Carrier spacing |200 kHz |
|Coverage |Up to several dozen kilometers |
Source: Ericsson
Table 4.2: GSM 400 frequencies
GSM 400 systems are expected to have the capabilities to extend the range of both voice and high-speed data coverage in comparison to existing GSM systems. The specifications for GSM 400 include support for GSM Phase 2+ features such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), as well as Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution (EDGE). GPRS is the first implementation of packet switching within GSM, allowing users to send and receive data at rates up to 115 Kbit/s. EDGE increases the rate of data throughput over existing GSM infrastructure up to 384 Kbit/s using new modulation techniques. However, distance from the base station will remain an important factor in the provision of high-speed data services as the maximum achievable data rate falls the farther a terminal is located from the corresponding base station.
As of July 2000, Ericsson and Nokia had announced plans to produce GSM 400 cellular systems, while Benefon had announced its intention of producing multi-band handsets. The systems infrastructure is scheduled to become commercially available in early 2001. Prototypes of tri-band GSM 400/900/1800 handsets, with support for high speed circuit switched data (HSCSD) and wireless application protocol (WAP), are scheduled for trials in the fourth quarter of 2000. The handsets are expected to be available in commercial volumes in the second quarter of 2001. Network infrastructure trials are planned for the fourth quarter of 2000 with commercial availability from the first quarter of 2001 [29].
4.3 Combined point-to-multipoint / wireless local loop systems
The use of TDMA-based point-to-point (PTP) or point-to-multipoint (PMP) radio systems with wireless local loop tails is a fairly recent phenomenon, having been introduced in rural areas over the past three to four years. The substitution of wireless systems for copper cables in the local loop helps reduce the maintenance costs associated with physical plant in rural areas.
The focus group received reports describing the implementation of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint systems with one of two wireless local loop technologies: Personal Handyphone System (PHS) and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone (DECT). These technologies have been standardized on either national or regional bases, the former in Japan and the latter in Europe.
Point-to-multipoint / PHS wireless local loop
Two reports submitted to the FG7 case library described the implementation of integrated point-to-multipoint / wireless local loop (WLL) systems using PHS technology as the WLL component. The systems provide a completely wireless implementation between the local exchange and the subscriber telephone over very long distances. PHS was originally designed to offer enhanced wireless telephony services with limited mobility in urban and suburban areas. In recent years, it has been deployed as a fixed wireless local loop solution. In fact, there are more than 20 countries which have introduced PHS-WLL systems serving over half a million telephones, which enable more than 3 millions people to enjoy telephone, facsimile and Internet services.
According to the PHS MoU, the main features of PMP/PHS-WLL are as follows:
• End-to-end wireless access solution;
• Large service area of up to 540 km in a chain of repeaters;
• Flexible system capacity expandable to 1,400 subscribers per base station;
• High-quality service using 32 Kbit/s ADPCM;
• Robust against natural disasters;
• Low implementation and maintenance cost;
• Solar cells are available for repeater (80W) and cell stations (40W).
The major specifications of PMP/PHS-WLL are summarized in Table 4.3.
| (1) PMP TDMA System |Typical parameters and values |
|Frequency band |1.5 / 2.4 / 3.5 GHz |
|Voice coding |32 Kbit/s ADPCM (ITU-T G.726) |
|Access method (modulation) |TDM / TDMA (QPSK) |
|Interface with local exchange |2-wire analog or V5.2 digital |
|Transmission capacity |4 Mbit/s, 120 Time slots |
|Number of subscriber lines per base station |Up to 1,400 subscribers |
| |(for call rate of 0.07 Erlang / sub.) |
|Subscriber unit |1 / 2 / 16 / 64 lines |
|Radio hop distance |Max. 45 km (Max. 12 hops) |
|Voice band data rate |9.6 – 14.4 Kbit/s |
|User data rate |Up to 384 Kbit/s |
| | |
|(2) PHS-WLL System | |
|Frequency band * |1,895 – 1,918 MHz |
|Voice coding |32 Kbit/s ADPCM (ITU-T G.726) |
|Access method (modulation) |TDMA / TDD (π/4 shift QPSK) |
|Transmission capacity * |4 Time slots / RF (4RF / Cell station) |
| |15 Traffic Channels / Cell station |
|Number of subscriber lines per cell station *|Max. 128 Lines |
|Subscriber unit |1 line |
|Cell Range * |Up to 5 km with 8dBi directional antenna; |
| |Up to 15 km with adaptive array antenna |
|Voice band data rate * |Up to 14.4 Kbit/s |
| | |
|* These values are up to the manufacturers. |
| | |
Table 4.3: Technical specifications of PMP/PHS-WLL (Source: PHS MoU Group)
As described in the FG7 case library, a pilot project of PMP/PHS-WLL was implemented in an industrial area of Cambodia. In Thailand, the Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) began employing PMP/PHS-WLL systems to provide unserved rural areas with 50,000 telephones in 1999. In the above examples, PMP/PHS-WLL was found to be an apt system for new residential and industrial areas as well as rural areas, due to quick implementation, low cost and the system’s flexible network structure.
A PMP/PHS-WLL system generally comprises base stations (BS), repeater units (RU), subscriber units (SU), cell stations (CS), and 2-wire fixed terminals (2W-FT), as illustrated in Figure 4.2.
[pic]
Figure 4.2 Network Configuration of PMP/PHS-WLL System (Source: NEC)
As shown in the figure before, the BS can directly access offices and apartments in suburban areas and the RU also accommodates subscribers in small villages. The combination of PMP and PHS-WLL allows flexibility in the formation of the access network to serve the requirements of suburban areas, towns and villages.
The time required for installing PHS-WLL systems is short compared with conventional copper cable networks, and the cost is relatively low (provided reasonable fees for the wireless spectrum). PHS and other wireless local loop systems have been shown to correspond with more efficient investment patterns as compared with regular cable plant (see Figure 4.3) because the modularity of the system allows for smaller increments of additional investment as the network is expanded.
Point-to-point / DECT wireless local loop
Telkom South Africa reported to Focus Group 7 on its use of point-to-point (PTP) time division multiple access (TDMA) systems with DECT stations in the local loop. DECT is a cordless access technology that has also been used as a wireless local loop solution in rural areas.
Telkom discovered several advantages to the use of DECT tails instead of copper on point-to-point TDMA systems in underserved areas, such as:
• Speed of deployment is very fast, helping the company to meet annual roll-out targets;
• Flexible service provisioning;
• Wireless technologies avoid the problem of copper theft in outlying areas and reduce network exposure to vandalism, thus saving on material and labor costs as well as lost network time;
• DECT technology is redeployable, which makes it attractive for use in fast-growing areas with significant levels of subscriber churn (cancellation of service by the subscriber). [16]
• Low cost: an average of 500 US$ per line in urban areas (DECT) [4]
As reported in Telkom’s document, as well as in a Telkom WLL case study provided by Pyramid Research [4], the deployment of a WLL network faces a number of logistical challenges which delay the progress of the rollout, specially when the operator is unfamiliar with WLL deployments, and independently of the chosen radio technology. However, nowadays, in SouthAfrica more than 140,000 WLL subscribers have been connected to the PSTN which makes, along with the DECT WLL deployed by Egypt Telecom (150,000 DECT lines), the first wireless technology used around the world for local loop applications. The PMP combination with DECT tails provides:
• End-to-end wireless solution;
• Large service area of up to 1,000 km, if necessary;
• Flexible system capacity expandable to over 100,000 subscribers;
• High-quality voice service using 32 Kbit/s ADPCM;
• “Wired-like” services (voice, fax, voice band data, ISDN BA or internet access using V90 modem at 56 Kbps).
Furthermore, the DECT standard, initially developed by ETSI, has been recently selected by ITU as one of the five air interface for IMT-2000, providing data rate up to 2 Mbps and thus capable of supporting a wide range of multimedia applications.
|Applicable frequency bands | |
| DECT link |1880 MHz – 1930 MHz [Note 1] |
| PMP radio approach link |1.5 GHz (ITU-R Rec. 746 Annex-1) |
| |2.4 GHz (ITU-R Rec. 746 Annex-2) |
| |3.5 GHz (CEPT/ERC/REC 14-03) |
|Voice coding |32 Kbit/s ADPCM (ITU-T G.726) |
|Voice band data rate |9.6 – 56.6 Kbit/s |
|Data transmission |64 – 512 Kbit/s [Note 3] |
|Interface with local exchange |2-wire analog or V5.2 interface |
|Cell range |up to 5 km [Note 2] |
|Service coverage |up to several hundred Km |
Table 4.3: Technical specifications of PMP/DECT-WLL (Source: ETSI Standard)
Note 1; The current DECT bands available are 1880 – 1900MHz, 1900 – 1920MHz, 1910 – 1930MHz and several 25MHz sub-bands in the 3,5GHz band e.g. 3425 – 3450MHz
Note 2: Certain DECT suppliers are able to provide 16Km DECT WLL coverage around a base station thus making this solution ideally suited to providing WLL covergae in low subscriber density areas.
Note 3: ISDN BRA services (128kbit/s) services are able to be provided via the DECT WLL solution. 512 Kbit/s is the maximum data rate obtained with the standardised DECT Packet Radio Service (DPRS) with GFSK modulation.
The planning of DECT WLL systems is supported by mature computer-based tools which facilitate the planning of DECT networks in terms of the coverage footprint to be achieved, i.e. coverage of all subscribers indicated by the operator. This planning is required in all WLL networks (independently of the used radio technology) if the operator is to successfully deliver service to his customers, as Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) aims to provide an equivalent, or better, service to wireline. It is therefore necessary to perform the planning to ensure that the required Service Quality is achieved for all of the subscribers, whether they are 5 km or 16 km away from the DECT base station. Without planning the FWA service offered would be similar to a mobile one, i.e. service is not guaranteed.
DECT additionally offers the operator the benefit of having no radio channel planning. The same 20 Mhz band is utilised throughout the operator’s entire DECT network. The powerful Dynamic Channel Allocation (DCA) mechanism, as defined in the ETSI DECT standards, handles the allocation of all the DECT radio resources internally to the system, without any intervention required from the operator.
As with all systems of this type, i.e. Point-to-Multipoint, the equipment is located in secure, weatherproof outdoor housings. Power can be supplied either via existing AC supplies or DC powers systems. Some examples of typical subscriber installations are shown below.
[pic] [pic]
Figure 4.4: DECT Solar Powered Subscriber Installation
20 CDMA450[?]
Introduction
Spectrum in the 450 MHz band has long been also allocated for wireless services in several countries throughout the world, including a number of developing nations located in central and eastern Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. The band is currently served with analog (NMT) technology and is generally underutilized and feature poor.
Figure 4.5: The 450 MHz Footprint
A trial is currently (4Q 2000) underway to demonstrate the use of CDMA technology in and around the 450 MHz band. This effort is identified as cdma450. The use of frequencies in the 400 MHz band, rather than 850 MHz or 1900 MHz, provides wider coverage from each base station. The comparative range of cdma450/850/1900 is shown schematically below.
Figure 4.6: Relative Range of Cdma450/850/1900
Specifically, cdma450 covers the same area as a CDMA system at 850 MHz using approximately half the number of cell sites. In applications where very extensive coverage is required, a software adjustment to timing parameters permits a range of up to 180 km under favorable conditions.
Importantly, CDMA can be easily accommodated in the current band and license structure that serves this spectrum. The band plan for cdma450 (shown in the table below) is consistent with the existing allocations for NMT-450 and provides about 2 x 4.5 MHz to the licensee. This allocation will support three CDMA 1.25 MHz carriers (with the appropriate guard bands). Accordingly, additional spectrum is not required and rechannelization is unnecessary. Moreover, the time and expense associated with reallocating spectrum and clearing bands occupied with other services need not be incurred.
| | |Transmit Frequency Band (MHz) |
|System Designator |Band |Mobile Station |Base Station |
| |Subclass | | |
|A |0 |452.500-457.475 |462.500-467.475 |
|B |1 |452.000-456.475 |462.000-466.475 |
|C |2 |450.000-454.800 |460.000-464.800 |
|D |3 |411.675-415.850 |421.675-425.850 |
|E |4 |415.500-419.975 |425.500-429.975 |
|F |5 |479.000-483.480 |489.000-493.480 |
|G |6 |455.230-459.990 |465.230-469.990 |
|H |7 |451.310-455.730 |461.310-465.730 |
Table 4.4: IS-2000-2 NMT-450 Band (Band Class 5) Frequency Plan
The commonality of band plans between NMT and cdma450 technology will allow operators to gracefully overlay the existing analog technology with cdma450 systems. The transition to cdma450 can therefore be made consistent with market needs and economic constraints.
The use of CDMA technology is well suited as a wireless air interface for use in this spectrum. CDMA, which currently serves 65 million subscribers worldwide, will provide operators and their end users with significant improvements in:
- capacity
- coverage
- voice clarity
- call quality
- privacy and security
- power consumption
- infrastructure economics
- enhanced services/data services
- fixed wireless access
These improvements will allow operators that serve rural areas to provide improved services for their subscribers. For example, services that support medical care, or offer internet access with the potential for educational services and global market access for local small businesses, will be available.
Cdma450 will be implemented based on internationally recognized standards that offer packet data service up to 144 kbps, as well as a voice traffic capacity double that of previous generations of CDMA technology. Further, the use of state of the art technology will provide operators in these environments the benefits of continuing equipment availability and potential economies of scale derived from global deployment and common platforms.
Development and testing of cdma450 technology is ongoing. A demonstration trial is now being held in Hungary, with commercial availability scheduled for 2H 2001.
Further explanation of the use of CDMA technology in the 450 MHz band is provided below.
Operation Within Existing NMT 400 Bands
Cdma450 requires 1.8 MHz, including guard bands, to operate a single CDMA carrier, 3.0 MHz for two carriers, and 4.3 MHz for three carriers. NMT operators can, thus, operate one or two Cdma450 carriers in a 4.5 MHz allocation, while reserving spectrum for NMT 450 operation. In an all-digital network, three CDMA carriers can be operated.
Coverage
Cdma450 significantly exceeds the coverage capabilities of NMT 450. Achievable maximum path loss values in cdma450 networks operating at rated capacity with 200 mw mobiles are approximately 2-3 dB greater than those for NMT 450 systems operating under similar conditions with 1 W mobiles. This translates into 50 to 70% larger cell coverage than those attainable in NMT 450 networks. Those NMT operators deploying cdma450 networks as overlays on existing NMT 450 networks can do either a 100% overlay or a fractional overlay. Using a 100% overlay, cdma450 is provisioned in all existing sites in the overlaid service area, resulting in service quality that is superior to that of the existing analog system. Using a fractional overlay, cdma450 is deployed in as few as one out of two of the NMT 450 sites. This results in coverage equivalent to that of the existing NMT 450 network, with capacity relative to that available in a 100% overlaid network.
These coverage benefits are also available to operators who implement cdma450 systems in spectrum in which analog NMT 450 has not been deployed and where the spectrum may, therefore, be previously unused.
Radio Performance
The results of extensive performance simulation for typical radio environments demonstrate that the latest version of CDMA technology can be down-banded to 450 MHz without any loss in performance.
Capacity
Cdma450 capacity, in both full-band (all-digital) and single carrier deployments, substantially exceeds the typical requirement of 60 Erlangs per site. CDMA capacity with a single carrier will be 79.3 Erlangs per site; with 2 carriers, the capacity will be 158.4 Erlangs per site; and with three carriers, the available capacity will be 237.6 Erlangs per site. A comparison of the capacity of cdma450 with that provided by NMT is shown in the table below.
|Parameters |Cdma450 |NMT Baseline |
|Erlangs per Sector per Carrier |26 |NA |
|Total Erlangs per Sector |79 |3.6 |
|Total Erlangs per Site |237 |10.8 |
|Subs per Site (30 mE) |7900 |360 |
|Percentage improvement over |2100% | |
|Baseline NMT network | | |
Table 4.5: Cdma450 versus NMT capacity
Voice Quality
The voice quality of both the IS-127 8 kbps enhanced variable rate codec (EVRC) and the IS-733 13 kbps speech codec provide higher quality speech under clean conditions than standard 32 kbps speech. Both speech codecs also provide higher quality speech than 64 kbps PCM. Measured delay for these speech codecs is under 60 ms.
The following figure graphically illustrates the Mean Opinion Scores (MOS) for the Enhanced Variable Rate Coder (EVRC) that is employed in cdma450 networks compared to the MOS of traditional vocoders used in wireline networks. The test was performed in the presence of decreasing background noise volume (from 10 db to 30 db). The noise suppression features provided with the EVRC enhance the perceived voice quality experienced by the listener, allowing the EVRC to consistently score better than either of the wireline coding standards.
Service Quality
Service quality is tied closely to both equipment implementation and radio network design and implementation. However, the service quality targets typically stated by operators are quite reasonably supported by cdma450.
Regulatory Compatibility
There are no known issues with regulatory approval for operating within existing NMT 450 licenses, or for obtaining type approval.
RF Compatibility
It has been demonstrated that there exist no problems with RF compatibility. In particular, coexistence between the digital and analog systems is not a problem in systems with 100% digital overlay (digital sites co-located with analog sites). In systems with fractional overlay, distance guidelines need to be followed to ensure that terminals do not operate in CDMA mode at too great a distance from CDMA base stations. In systems with cdma450 coverage over part of the service area, certain guard zone guidelines need to be followed to ensure that terminals do not operate in CDMA mode too far away from CDMA base stations. These guard zone guidelines are no more restrictive than those required for any digital technology.
Roaming and Handover - Infrastructure Support
National roaming and international roaming between cdma450 and other CDMA-based systems operating in other bands has been considered. This can be done using a Home Location Register (HLR) that is common between the systems. Current numbering plans can be maintained, and home network services can be supported in visited networks, to the extent that the services are offered or available in the visited network. Further, ongoing efforts within the ITU are engaged in the development of standards that will support network to network interconnection (NNI). These standards will describe the interface that will permit roaming between systems that support ANSI-41 and GSM-MAP networks.
Minimum Services/Feature Support
The cdma450 solution offers a wide range of features and services substantially exceed the requirements for bearer services, supplementary services, Wireless Intelligent Network (WIN) services, and other related services.
Standards Base
Cdma450 is based entirely on an existing standards base. The air interface is based on IS 2000, and the network on TIA/EIA-41. Standards have been developed that describe the use of IS 2000 with a GSM-MAP network. Such an arrangement has been considered and could be made available subject to market demand.
Evolutionary Implementation
Dual-mode deployments could be used to accomplish evolutionary network implementations, which would allow the operator to deploy cdma450 technology within their existing coverage area, while providing digital subscribers area-wide service through the use of dual-mode, dual band mobile stations (MS). This can be accomplished while reusing a substantial portion of existing network infrastructure and also continuing the use of the existing subscriber directory numbers.
Open Standard
The cdma450 product is being built in accordance with ITU recognized standards available to any manufacturer. Using an open standard will allow operators to realize the benefits associated with a competitive market for the supply of infrastructure and subscriber equipment.
Handset Functions, Capabilities and Features
Ultimately, plans call for the development of dual mode, dual band cdma450/GSM 900 handsets, thereby allowing roaming between areas served by these technologies.
Time-to-Market
Cdma450 mobile phones, base stations that operate in the NMT 450 band, base station controllers, and analog to digital network elements will be commercially available in 2H 2001.
Wireless Local Loop Services
Cdma450 systems also support fixed Wireless Local Loop (WLL) services
Smart Antenna Support
Numerous Smart Antenna technologies currently under development have the potential to enhance the already superior coverage and capacity of cdma450 systems. However, it is believed that the superior capacity and coverage attainable by using cdma450 technology without smart antennas will significantly delay the need to adopt Smart Antenna technology. Switched beam antenna systems can further increase capacity. In addition, an auxiliary pilot is included to fully support beam forming and smart antenna applications.
Security and Fraud Prevention
The cdma450 solution offers substantial facilities for security and fraud prevention. The technology supports comprehensive solutions for validation and authentication of subscribers, as well as signaling message encryption and voice privacy. Fraud detection and prevention are also supported.
4.5 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs)
VSATs are playing a growing role in the provision of telephony, distance education and data services in remote areas. VSATs are small satellite communication earth stations, typically less than 5-6 m in diameter. They can be installed directly at the user's premises and left unattended[?]. Due to falling equipment prices and the large footprint offered by communications satellites, VSATs are being deployed in areas where terrestrial telecommunication infrastructure is either uneconomical or too difficult to install.
Prices for VSATs have fallen rapidly over the past decade, allowing manufacturers to expand sales of VSAT systems into low-end applications such as rural telephony. In the early 1990s, prices typically ranged from US$10,000 - $12,000 per VSAT. As of the year 2000, entry-level VSAT telephony stations typically start at US$3500 - $4000, although prices can range anywhere between US$2,000 and $8,000, depending on the volume purchased and added features.
The costs of acquiring and operating VSAT systems continue to be driven down by:
• Economies of scale. Annual VSAT sales have increased five-fold since 1990;
• Falling prices for electronic components, such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs);
• Efficiency improvements in satellite transmission techniques;
• Lower space segment costs due to increased competition;
• Use of high-power satellite spot beams which allow smaller ground terminals.
In addition to remote terminals, many VSAT network configurations employ a Master Hub, consisting of a large earth station antenna, network management facilities and associated systems. The cost of a new Hub station can be as much as US$500,000 to $1 million. According to at least one case study in the FG7 library, considerable savings can be achieved through the use of existing or refurbished Hub stations.
VSAT-based rural telephony
Peru's Fund for Investment in Telecommunications (FITEL) submitted a case study to the FG7 library describing a 1998 tender to award a 20-year, subsidized concession to provide rural payphones in the remote regions of Tumbes, Piura, Cajamarca and Amazonas. Participants in the tender submitted "bids" indicating the lowest government subsidy they would be willing to accept in order to build the network.
The solution selected by FITEL was based on VSAT technology. The cost-reducing principles behind the winning solution, submitted by GVT del Peru, included the following:
• VSAT-based thin route telephony with up to three voice channels per VSAT;
• Low power consumption of approximately 40 watts per VSAT, since 90% of sites lacked commercial electricity supply;
• Star network topology using 7.6m Hub station in the capital city and a 1.2m or 1.8m remote VSAT station in each town;
• Use of simple, rugged payphones with a prepaid system instead of coins, to reduce the number of field trips to payphone installations;
• Centralized network management system at the Hub.
Based on this configuration GVT del Peru proposed to cover the costs of building, installing and operating the network with a government subsidy of US$4,909,292 over five years. The remaining costs would be born by the operator and recovered from service revenues. According to FITEL, the subsidy amounted to public expenditure of US$11 per inhabitant.
Integrated VSAT / WLL systems
Intelsat provided the Focus Group with a set of general guidelines for selecting the most economically feasible VSAT solution based on the population distribution, subscriber density and other characteristics of the rural area being served (see Table 4.4). According to Intelsat's findings, a VSAT connected directly to subscribers is most likely to be a viable solution when serving geographically scattered populations requiring fewer than 20 lines per site.
VSATs with wired or cordless local loop systems are generally feasible for clusters of population requiring between 20 and 300 lines per site. Finally, Intelsat's studies showed that VSAT plus macrocellular wireless local loop (up to 30km radius) could be a feasible solution to serve medium density populations requiring more than 300 lines per site.
Table 4.4 Comparison of rural VSAT telephony solutions
|Variables |VSAT alone |VSAT & Wired Loop |VSAT & Wireless Loop / |VSAT & Wireless |
| | | |Cordless Access Solution |Macrocellular Solution |
|Population Distribution |Scattered |Concentrated & clustered|Clustered |Uniform |
|Subscriber Density |Very low ( ................
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