A short presentation by

(Djursland International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband)

on

Broadband in rural areas through self-organizing

COMBINING SELF-ORGANIZING AND WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTUREIS AN AFFORDABLE RURAL CONNECTIVITY METHOD !

By educational leader Bjarke Nielsen

Page 1

To introduce myself:1. My name is Bjarke Nielsen. I am the educational leader at DIIRWB and I

founded the DjurslandS.net, maybe the World’s biggest non-commercial rural wireless network, giving Internet connection to rural schools, -institutions, -firms and close to 6000 rural households - up to now.

2. DIIRWB is an institute for training builders of cheap rural wireless broadband, based on the experience of establishing and running the DjurslandS.net.

3. DIIRWB is a cooperation of the “Computer Support Community of Djursland” and “the Grenaa Technical School” and we support the grass root movement on free Wi-Fi “World Summits on Free Information Infrastructures” (WSFII).

4. I founded the Computer Support Community of Djursland in 1993 and has been its chairman ever since.

5. I am also chairman of GrenaaS.net, the area-network of Grenaa, the largest city on Djursland.

6. I chair all pilot-projects on using wireless network for rural broadband infrastructure in the EU-funded “Baltic Rural Broadband Project” (BRB) in the countries around the Baltic sea in Northern Europe, and are also project-responsible for the Danish part called “Networking Djursland”.

7. I am a member of the EU-funded think-tank or advisory-board on “Broadband Access, Innovation & Regional Development” (BIRD) for the North Sea Area.

Page 2

Our home

Page 3

Cities is an exception on earth.Most of the surface of the earth is rural districts,and among other things they have in common

that it seems all too expensive to create a full surface covering broadband infrastructure that makes everyone

living on earth part of the global ICT society.Thus the divide between life in cities and countryside is further expanded and bear catastrophic perspectives.

Page 4

In Denmark ”Tele Danmark” (TDC), who owns the copper-line infrastructure, gives 95% of all households opportunity to get up to 2 megabit broadband access through 1600 ADSL centrals.

If TDC should give the remaining 5% the same possibility, TDC would have to make another 4600 ADSL centrals.

The need for almost 3 times extra centrals is due to these facts:1. All the 5% live in the sparsely populated rural areas2. The centrals is placed in the cities where 95% is concentrated3. The rural areas covers the major part of the geographical Danmark4. The ADSL centrals can at 2 megabit only reach out to 5 km on the lines

To believe that the economical forces of the market will expand the amount of ADSL centrals from 1600 to 6200, just to reach the last 5% of the households, would be sheer naivety.

Broadband coverage in Denmark

Page 5

As all rural areas around the globe have similar background - or worse - I will analyze this and tell

what we did to solve the problem on Djursland

On Djursland the consequences of the short range of ADSL was that 25% of the households outside the cities could not get a ADSL broadband access

Lets start to see the economical forces graphically

Broadband coverage on Djursland

Page 6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

up til 2048 Kbit up til 128 Kbitin dense settlement in dispersed settlement

% of households in Denmark with respectively big and small bandwidth

Possibility of Internet access through the Danish telecom net

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

Number of ADSL centrals whichgives 95% of Denmarks householdspossibility for 2048 Kbit/sek.Needed extra ADSL centrals if thelast 5% should also have possibilityfor 2048 Kbit/sek.

19timesmore

homeswhichhave

accessfor 16timesmorespeed

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

The economy needed intowns to give service for 55householdscan in rural areas only giveservice for 1 household

Totally unprofitable for TDC

Page 7

It will almostcost 3

times more to reach one rural

household than it has

cost to reach

nineteenin thecities,

so for 1 rural you get about3 times

nineteenin cities

IT is all too expensive to create ADSL-access in rural areas

TDC’s expense for establishment of these 4600 extra ADSL-centralswould in real money amount to 175 million €.

TDC would have an additional expense of 150 €for each household to be connected.

TDC does not think that connecting the rural peoplecan happen on market conditions.

TDC therefore wants national fundsto make broadband access in the rural countryside.

Page 8

The counterclaim from several of the Danish political partiesto the TDC is wishing to decide a universal service obligation, but the EU-commission rejects universal service obligation in this field

From the EU and the government side the decisions are clear: Broadband roll out is to happen based on pure market conditions

So neither will TDC be ordered a universal service obligation nor will companies be given government grants to bridge the divide

Thus a rural solution is left over to a market totally without ability

This way authorities and business marketleaves the rural population to themselves

Page 9

(The 8 municipalities on Djursland)

Since 2001 volunteers have developed the Djursland-model.It proved that people in the Danish countryside,

through volunteer action, can get comparable broadband accessat 1/3 of the average market price in cities,

using an outdoor antenna amplified wireless data radio technique,based on standardized mass-produced Wi-Fi equipment.

(Negotiations with 35 ISPs on all kind of technology showedthat a rural IT-infrastructure giving access all over Djursland

could not be established on market conditions)

Page 10

Facts of Djursland:Population: 82.420Total area: 1.491 km²Population density: 57,6 pr. km²

Djurslandand what we did

User installation box

An outdoor box with:

1. An accesspoint

2. A directional antenna in the lid

3. Ethernet kabel for the house

4. An lengthened powercord

Page 11

A central village installation:

1. A radio-based connectionlinking to a central radio stationthrough a directional-antenna.

2. And an omni-antennagiving radio-basedaccess for installationsat roofs at householdsand institutions

Page 12

. . is run by volunteersand consist today of 9area nets, with more

than 250 central antenna nodes, which each covers about 10km in diameter in all directions, and whichin all, up to now, give

wireless access to close to 6000 amplified

APs in rural households, -schools, -institutions and -firms.

Each household etc. borrows the gear and

pays a one time contribution of 267 €, and also 13 € each month for access.

Bandwidth is between2 and 5 Megabit/sec. The 6000 connectedhouseholds etc. saveall together each yearabout 2 1/4 million €,compared to the sum they should have paid

to the commercial ISPs, – if they could

have delivered to everybody in our rural

areas at the actual city-market price for similar bandwidth.

Each new household saves 275 € the first year, and each of the following years they

save more than 500 €.

DjurslandS.net

User antennas with 1½ km reach is used in the purple areasUser antennas with 3 km reach is used in the orange areasUser antennas with 5 km reach is used in the yellow areas

Page 13

Savings by high speed Internet access

with unlimited consumption via DjurslandS.net's area nets

ISP speed Once month year 1 year 2 save year 1 save year 2

Djursnet 4096/4096 Kbit/s 267 13 423 156  - - 

Cybercity 4096/256 Kbit/s 26 47 590 564 167 408

tele2 4096/256 Kbit/s 0 50 600 600 177 444

Stofanet 4096/512 Kbit/s 0 61 732 732 309 576

TDC 4096/512 Kbit/s 79 63 835 756 412 600

DanskKabelTV 4096/256 Kbit/s 93 53 731 638 308 482

Average savings in Euro       275 502

Connected households in 2006         1.000 new 4.000 now

Expected savings 2006, all connected households on Djursland 275.000 2.008.000

Savings in all 2006, (self-sponsoring of the IT-society on Djursland) 2.283.000

Page 14

Comparison of all expenses in € for a household- over 4 years - for comparable broadband access

ISP Speed 1. year 2. year 3. year 4. year In all Expense factor

Djursnet (non-commercial) 4096/4096 Kbit/s 423 156 156 156 891 1,00

Cybercity 4096/256 Kbit/s 590 564 564 564    

tele2 4096/256 Kbit/s 600 600 600 600    

Stofanet 4096/512 Kbit/s 732 732 732 732    

TDC 4096/512 Kbit/s 835 756 756 756    

DanskKabelTV 4096/256 Kbit/s 731 638 638 638    

Market average a year for 4096/256 (512) Kbit/s: 697,6 658 658 658 2671,6 3,00

Page 15

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

The economy needed intowns to give service for 55householdscan in rural areas only giveservice 1 household

Totally unprofitable for TDC

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180TDC rentability in towns

TDC in rural areas

Wireless landscapenet

The wireless landscapenet has a world-beating economy

As seen here, a wireless landscapenet - which is

established and driven by volunteers - has an economical

cost effectiveness and sustainability which over 4 year is about 165 times bigger than

when a surface covering IT infrastructure is created in a

rural area, through establishment of extra DSL

centrals and their access lines.

Landscapenet has 165 times better economy than ADSL rural centrals

Page 16

Self organizing is the sure solution for remote areas

Through self-organizingin our rural districts we can- out of self interest -,establish and run our ownbroadband-infrastructures,where all institutions andhouseholds can get access at 1/3of the average market price in big cities.

So we are not really dependent on funding !

Think about what this means globally !

Page 17

As rural districts we don’t have to either be dependent on:• the lacking ability of the political conditions to cope with minorities• or the lacking motivation of commercial interests

We can create and run IT-infrastructures by our own powers.

As rural population we ought to take the initiative ourselvesto better our living conditions, as we as minority anyway never will get high priority on the agenda of society.

So I would say to rural people:Don’t wait for nothing – do it yourself, and do it now !

The broadband problem in the countryside is easily solved;it is only a matter of organizing volunteers and provide the appropriate knowledge and competence to run Wi-Fi based landscapenet.

Page 18

DIIRWB’s training- and teaching-disciplines

1) Organization2) Campaign3) Administration4) Equipment and tools5) Net-planning- and building6) Web-portal building and running7) User-support and running net8) Handling of routers and servers9) Documentation and evaluation

Normally we will train groups from the same area with at least 8 participants. They will be specialized so that a sharing of work can take place.Share of responsibility among volunteers makes non-commercial establishing and running of community network realistic.

Page 19

Thank you for your attention :-)

Further information can be obtained at:» http://Boevl.dk» http://DjurslandS.net» http://Networking-Djursland.dk » http://DIIRWB.net (fetch the institute brochure)» http://Landscapenet.eu

Or via: Kontakt@Boevl.dk + 45 60 25 00 01 og 15

Page 20

Test of QoS in Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11a equipment from Lancom

Test of QoS in WiMax equipment from Redline Communications

Research was done at DIIRWB’s partner: the University of Stralsund in nothern Germany.

Appendix A

Appendix B

BIRD-REPORT FROM DJURSLAND, DENMARK

DIIRWB - a cooperation between GTS and Bøvl - is running 16 local partial project to further develop an example of a rural IT society.We are here represented by Klavs, Birte and me Bjarke.

Partner with the Innovation Djursland initiative. We are focusing on developing solutions to bridge the technological and social divide which rural people meet.

IT minister has promised access, also all over in rural areas, but without funding, alone through the market TDC can provide access up to 2mbit to 95% households through 1600 centrals TDC would have to make an extra 4600 centrals to reach the remaining 5% and that can not be done commercially.

According to the Djursland wireless infrastructure model, 165 households in rural areas can be given access for what it cost to reach a single household by extra traditional centrals and at 1/3 of the market price for similar service in the cities. - This is based on the experience from connecting 5000 households etc. in rural Djursland - an area of 60*50 km. 57 individuals pr. km2.

Appendix C

DIIRWB are now arranging a Networking Djursland Conference with participation of 25 partners and the public in jan-07. 16 pilot projects are presented on further development of Djursland into a good rural IT society.

Cooperation with Grenaa City Antenna society about TV via the rural wireless network. We are testing wireless multicasting.

Cooperation with the electricity company of our area about integrating fiber access and the rural wireless net, bringing higher speed to each wirelessly connected household etc.

Cooperation with the rural board of our region, on multiplying our model for other rural areas in our region. A mobile reaching platform with tree tasks.

A one month travel in India has prepared 5 rural areas to apply the Djursland-model and make showcases for all of rural India.

Free wireless access with limited bandwidth is planned for the whole geographical area in two of our eight municipalities. This will benefit mobile wireless access for the locals as well as for tourists.