DakNet: Providing Internet Connectivity to rural areas

DakNet is an initiative from FirstMile Solutions (FMS) which is based on an idea that won the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition in 2002. DakNet, which is a service offered by FMS's sister company, United Villages in India (which had to be created due to the various regulatory obligations in India), uses a store and forward technique through Wi-Fi, which the company describes as "Cached Wi-Fi Intelligence".

Here is how the service operates: United Villages has installed Mobile Access Points (MAPs) on existing vehicles such as buses and motorcycles which ply in rural areas. There are kiosks which have been installed in villages, which typically have a computer with a real-time wireless internet connection. United Villages sells pre-paid cards to village kiosk operators who in turn resell them to the villagers, who can use it to avail services such as sending e-mails, voicemails, SMSs, purchase railway tickets online, access matrimonial sites etc. Whenever an MAP is within the range of the wireless network, it picks up the stored data from the kiost computer and forwards it to the internet in cities.

FMS's service now covers more than 40,000 villages in five countries, including India and Cambodia. This is definitely an innovative and inspiring initiative but I believe it has to overcome some of its shortcomings such as usage of petrol/diesel-driven vehicles for MAPs, charging the villagers for services as simple as e-mail etc. The company has ambitious plans to connect all the 220,000 villages in India and it would be interesting to know about the strategies that it adopts. The company plans tie-ups with major telecom companies and ISPs in India in order to achieve profitability and I wish them All the best!

A few links which give more info about DakNet, United Villages and FMS are given here:

http://www.firstmilesolutions.com/index.php

http://www.unitedvillages.com/