Sustainable wireless internet connectivity for rural areas

Internet usage in rural areas of most developing nations has not been encouraging. Telecom operators have not found it commercially viable to offer internet services in rural areas because of low revenue and scarcity of electrical power. Small internet service providers have not succeeded because existing solutions have been complex to install and operate, leading to increased costs. The authors present an overview of the challenges for rural connectivity and review some of the existing solutions in improving rural connectivity. A new solution that empowers entrepreneurs from local communities to offer affordable services with minimal operational costs is proposed. It ensures sustainability of the deployment, by profitably engaging local community to generate additional revenue. The solution builds up on existing work in disconnected networks and delay tolerant networks by simplifying the deployment scenarios and bringing in revenue regenerating aspects to those solutions.