Internet access for the rural developing world is widely perceived as a way to reduce isolation, provide educational and economic opportunities, and ultimately improve the quality of life. Unfortunately, high capital and operating costs have limited rural access to a handful of heavily subsidized and supported demonstration projects. An innovative integrated strategy, based on existing technologies and rural social structures, could address a variety of barriers and ultimately help get large numbers of rural communities on the internet. Here we propose the creation of a strategic demonstration and test bed in four villages in the Dominican Republic.

Needs Statement
The Rural Alternatives Center in El Limon, Dominican Republic, has provided community internet access in its own rural base community for almost four years, and has taken a major role in bringing Internet into five other villages. This experience has led to identifying the following major barriers to broader replication:
1. Most rural communities lack infrastructure for telecommunications and electric power
2. It is much easier to obtain funding for infrastructure installation than for ongoing connectivity and maintenance costs
3. Operating and maintaining computers is very problematic for rural residents
4. The laptop computers generally used for off-grid access are particularly difficult and expensive to maintain
5. Commercial operating system and application software is expensive, difficult to maintain, and lacks flexibility

An Integrated Strategy for Rural Internet Access
The strategy seeks to create a substantial breakthrough in getting rural people online, which is currently a difficult, slow, and expensive proposition. The demonstration is designed to produce a replicable, high-visibility model that can be rapidly and extensively duplicated.
Two innovative concepts appear, supported by the thoughtful use of existing technologies. The first concept is social and demographic: to take advantage of the existing clustering of villages. In the Caribbean (and in many parts of the developing world) close associations exist among groups of 5 - 10 villages. These villages are typically within a couple of hours walking distance, and linked by intermarriage, transit, and commerce. Given an average of two computer workstations at each village school, we would have 10 - 20 computers per cluster. This is a comfortable number for sharing today's typical broadband connection (ADSL or satellite), and for connecting the villages by generic low-cost wireless networking technology. It is also a good number for developing a cluster technical group to operate and maintain the system, since in our experience every village has at least one or two bright, motivated young people who could learn the technology rapidly.
The second innovation is a mechanism to pay for the shared internet connection. In our experience neither the rural schools, nor the young people who are the avid Internet users, have the disposable income to pay for the connection, which typically costs $ 100 - 300 per month. However, residents will always find money for telephone calls. Preliminary projections indicate that while this is not sufficient to capitalize the installation, it could pay much of the ongoing connection costs. Calls over the local network within the cluster have no incremental cost, and existing social, family, and economic ties create a built-in market. Outside calls may be made over the internet, or through a low-cost local gateway, and a surcharge added. For a variety of social and political reasons, the telephone component will be presented as a way of subsidizing the school internet access, not as a separate business, and will probably be operated by the school's parents' association.
Various technical elements are also addressed in the strategy, to reduce infrastructure and connectivity costs, and to lower the excessive amount of technical support currently needed to keep a village computer running.

Beneficiaries of the Project
Four communities will participate in the demonstration. El Limon (population 350), Los Martinez (population 250), Los Ranchitos (population 200), Las Caobas (population 150).
El Limon has had Internet for almost four years, and currently has 40 children and youth enrolled in computer studies under the tutelage of a Peace Corps volunteer. Our experience has been very positive: that access stimulates interest in learning, greatly improves educational opportunity for the youth, facilitates local development projects, and raises community self-esteem.
El Limon will be the project focus, and about 10 residents will be trained as the core group to perform installation and training in the other three communities, and eventually in other communities around the Dominican Republic (we have already received requests for these services).
The other three communities will receive two computer workstations in their schools, and the training to use and maintain the infrastructure.
All four communities will receive telephone service (over the cluster network) for the first time.
Given a successful demonstration, we will see extensive replication of this strategy.
There has been much discussion of internet content for rural people, particularly in terms of agricultural extension and marketing tools. But the farmers of El Limon have so far been unable to find much useful material. We feel that this is because such content is expensive to produce and maintain, and will only appear when a much larger rural user base develops. The strategy demonstrated here could play a major role in creating that user base.

Action Elements
· Outreach: Meetings will be held in each community to explain the project, confirm the community's commitment, and select the initial community working group
· Planning: Preparation of work plan and timeline, design and site location for the network connecting the villages and the internet connection
· Training: Preparing the youth group (operators): training in basic computer skills (except Limon, where training will focus on server operation), network operation and maintenance
· Organizational Development: Working with the community and cluster committees to build institutional capacity
· Installation: Actual installation of the wireless network, solar power systems, and village computers.
· Operation Startup: Initiation of service, resolution of the inevitable technical problems
· Monitoring: Compilation of statistics for local and long distance telephone use. Financial analysis

Resources Needed
· A broadband internet connection
· Wireless network equipment to connect four villages to each other and to the internet connection
· Local computer equipment for three villages
· Voice telephone equipment in four villages, gateway at telephone line
· Solar power source for three villages
· Server in El Limon to manage the internet connection
· Hardware/software assembly and testing (volunteers available in the US)
· Installation management
· Training for installation/training group of villagers
· Institutional development assistance for community group(s) to manage system operations
· Training for youth group that will actually operate the system
· System integration
· Technical consulting on-site

Management
CAREL will assume primary project management responsibility for the six month startup period. Then operations will be turned over to the community groups. Management tools will include a monthly evaluation by the project committee, and progress reports every two months.

Execution
The CAREL technical consultant will prepare a work plan and timeline. A project coordinator will be hired, from the community if possible, to implement the plan. Working groups will be formed for installation, training, and organizational development, involving members of each participating community.

Time Frame
The implementation of the project described will be staged, with Los Martinez on line (and connected to Limon by telephone) within three months. Data collection regarding local calling will start at this time. Two more communities will be phased in over the following three months.

External Factors
· EcoPartners/CRESP will provide technical assistance and project oversight
· The Reuters Digital Vision Fellow will coordinate US based volunteers working in software/hardware integration
· Sun Microsystems will support the Reuters Fellow and provide some equipment (the server in El Limon)
Note that the hardware/software development effort (already in progress) focuses on an innovative village computer design. This will ultimately result in considerable reductions in equipment costs and maintenance efforts. But implementation within the six-month time frame is not essential to the core project, which is to demonstrate the cluster concept and sale of telephone service to subsidize the internet connection. If the village computer element moves slowly, the project will fall back to the use of (used) laptop computers for the time being.

Follow-up
The Rural Center is an ongoing part of the El Limon community, and will continue to provide oversight and technical support for the project.

Problem Validation and Data Gathering
The problems inherent in current rural internet access approaches are familiar to Project personnel from first-hand experience, and also from personal contacts with other related projects such as the Jahai Project in Laos.
Since the most important objective of the project is to demonstrate economic viability, the critical indicators of success are associated with income. The project will closely monitor income from the telephone calls, as compared to expenses, particularly of the internet connection. Other telephone usage information will also be useful: inter-village versus outside calling, who is making the calls, etc.

Partnerships
A major function of CAREL is providing the channel for developed-world institutions and individuals to work together with rural Dominican communities to create a more humane and ecological world. Dominican partners in this project are the rural communities of El Limon, Los Martinez, Los Ranchitos , and Las Caobas, and their community organizations and public schools. Overseas partners are EcoPartners/CRESP at Cornell University (technical assistance), the Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship at Stanford University (coordination of volunteers and some funding), Sun Microsystems (sabbatical support for volunteer, equipment donations), and various individual computer community volunteers.

Management Strategies
CAREL's philosophy is to build local capacity by encouraging initiative and independence on the base level. In this project, CAREL will provide overall coordination and direction, develop and maintain the timeline and accountability, and facilitate the formation of the cluster-wide and village organizations that will operate the system. Community participation will be encouraged on all levels. A Project Committee will be formed, and will meet openly and regularly to discuss progress, and resolve problems as they arise.

Project Integrity, Accomplishments, and Sustainability
CAREL (and its personnel) have successfully executed a $ 75,000 InterAmerican Foundation grant to start the Rural Center (1999 - 2002), a $ 20,000 UNDP contract to investigate and promote micro-hydroelectricity (2001-2002), and received the Ford Motor Company Environmental Award ( $ 15,000 in 2001). The Rural Center building is now under construction. As for this specific project, the main objective is to demonstrate a sustainable design for internet access.

Resource Development
The project will develop human resources in all four villages. This includes building the organizational capacity for ongoing system management through training and other forms of preparation. A cluster-wide (primarily) youth group will be formed to operate and maintain the system. A smaller team within this group will receive more intensive training and participate in the installation work, and eventually go out to assist other communities as replication proceeds.

Addendum 1: Timeline

TASK Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6
Outreach ß-à
Technical planning ß----à
Organizational development ß ------à
Technical training ß------ -----à
Installation ß-- -------- -à
Operation Startup ßà
Monitoring of results ß--- -------- ------à

Addendum 2:
Outline of the Integrated Rural Internet Access Strategy

1. The basic organizational and infrastructure unit is the cluster of 5 - 10 villages.
· Each cluster will have one broadband Internet connection. This will be by satellite, ADSL, cable, or 3G cellphone
· Cluster villages are interconnected by low-cost generic wireless LAN technology

2. Each cluster will have a focus community
· Serves as operations center for the cluster
· Chosen on the basis of road access, educational facilities, grid electricity or hydroelectric potential
· Maintains server to manage Internet traffic for efficient and economical use of available bandwidth
· Training center for village operator-maintainers

3. Village-level facilities
· At least one computer with 2 - 4 workstations
· Located in the village school
· Wireless LAN connection to cluster using dedicated small single board computer with open source operating system, mesh network, router
· Diskless operation
· Can be remotely managed and upgraded
· Peripherals are generic and field-replaceable
· Open-source operating system
· Open-source basic applications suite: word processing, spreadsheet, web browser, chat
· Additional software may be downloaded from the cluster computer
· Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone with accounting capability

4. Institutional Structure
· Each community has a management committee based in the Parents' Association
· Cluster committee of village representatives provides coordination and policy-level decision making
· Cluster-wide youth group operates and maintains the system

5. Mission
· Primary function is education in the school
· Secondary function is general education, then community access

6. Financial considerations
· Startup is capitalized as social investment
· Some operating costs are recovered from sale of local and long distance voice telephone service
· A small fee is charged for local calls and Internet access
· Operators (youth) are paid in internet access, local calls, and computer training

Addendum 3:
BUDGET FOR VILLAGE CLUSTER ACCESS STRATEGY DEMONSTRATION
CENTRO ALTERNATIVO RURAL EL LIMON, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ALL AMOUNTS IN $ US

EQUIPMENT
Wireless Network 5155
Village Computers (3) 3000
El Limon Server 2200
Power Supply (solar) 4170
Telephone Equipment 880
EQUIPMENT TOTAL 15,405

PERSONNEL
Coordinator 480 hrs @ $ 10 4800
Installation 300 hrs @ $ 5 1500
Training 160 hrs @ $ 10 1600
PERSONNEL TOTAL 7900

CONSULTANT
120 hrs @ $ 20 2400

COMMUNICATIONS 900

SUPPLIES 600

TRANSPORTATION 900

INSURANCE 750

ADMINISTRATION 1500

DOCUMENTATION 600

INTERNET CONNECTION (ADSL + Phone)
6 mos @ $ 170 1020

TOTAL EXPENDITURES $31,975

LESS OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS
Reuters Digital Vision Fellowships (received) 5000
Sun Microsystems (Server and support) 2200

TOTAL REQUESTED $24,775

Addendum 4:

EQUIPMENT DETAIL
Village Computer Solar Net Server Phone Subtotal
VILLAGE STATION
Board-based computer 2 WS 1000
IP-Phone adapter 150
Solar panels 50W 3x $ 220 660
Batteries 4 x $ 90 360
Controller 10 A 40
Inverter 300 W 50
SBC for 802.11b 250
802.11b PC Card 90
Lightning protector 35
Case for radio 50
Antenna 80
Misc: cables, hardware 50
Tower 100
STATION SUBTOTAL 1000 1110 655 0 150 2915
STATION SUBTOTAL x 3 3000 3330 1965 0 450 8745

REPEATER
Solar panels 30W $ 160 160
Battery $ 80 80
Controller 40
SBC for 802.11b 250
Lightning Protector (2) 70
802.11b PC Card (2) 180
Case for radio 50
Antennas (2) 160
Misc: cables, hardware 50
Tower 100
REPEATER SUBTOTAL 0 280 860 0 0 1140
REPEATER SUBTOTAL X 2 0 560 1720 0 0 2280

INET CONNECT
Solar panels 30W $ 160 160
Battery $ 80 80
Controller 40
SBC for 802.11b 250
802.11b PC Card 90
Case for radio 50
Antenna 80
Misc: cables, hardware 50
Tower 100
Phone Gateway 280
INET CONN SUBTOTAL 0 280 620 0 280 900

INSTALLATION EL LIMON
SBC for 802.11b 250
802.11b PC Card 180
Case for radio 50
Lightning protector (2) 70
Antennas (2) 150
Misc: cables, hardware 50
Tower 100
IP-Phone Adapter 150
Server 2200
LIMON SUBTOTAL 0 0 850 2200 150 3200

EQUIPMENT SUBTOTALS 3000 4170 5155 2200 880 15405

Addendum 5:

PRELIMINARY TELEPHONE INCOME PROJECTION

INTERVILLAGE CALLS PER VILLAGE
$ 0.02/min x 40 Minutes/day x 30 days 24
LOCAL CALLS PER VILLAGE
$ 0.04/min x 10 Minutes/day x 30 days 12
NATIONAL CALLS PER VILLAGE
$ 0.04/min x 10 Minutes/day x 30 days 12
INCOME PER VILLAGE 48
TOTAL INCOME FOR FOUR VILLAGES 192

COST OF TELEPHONE LINE AND ADSL 170