AirJaldi: empowering communities through wireless networks

High speed Internet access has changed the world immeasurably. A dazzling array of divides have been bridged - from educational and political to cultural and linguistic. Some gaps have not been narrowed, however, and some have been widened. This is particularly true for rural communities in developing countries, where building Internet infrastructures is not economically attractive due to the high cost of reaching users with low purchasing power.

AirJaldi is a social enterprise established in Dharamsala, India with aim of narrowing these gaps. Early in 2005, following the deregulation for outdoor use of WiFi in India, they built their first network, the Dharamsala Community Wireless-Mesh Network, in cooperation with the Tibetan Technology Center.

AirJaldi builds viable and sustainable wireless broadband networks for the benefit of rural communities in developing countries. In order to achieve this goal, they:

• Carry out or participate in the successful deployment of license-free wireless networks through partnerships with public, private and non-profit entities.
• Build the capacities of network operators and users through the training and capacity-building center, where trainees acquire the skills to establish, maintain and manage networks, and utilize them for the benefit of local communities.
• Research and develop technologies that enable simple deployment of affordable, feature-rich wireless networks.

The networks and support systems make extensive use of widely available open source software. AirJaldi is committed to the values and goals of the open source and free software community and strives to share their contributions to this global effort by making technical information on their work publicly available.

Read more: http://drupal.airjaldi.com/