The computing for development community knows that technology interventions involve consideration of social, technical and environmental factors. Research into WiFi solutions has fallen off as ubiquitous mobile solutions penetrate even the deepest rural communities worldwide. This paper argues that the latest wave of WiFi mesh networks offers benefits that traditional top-down WiFi and mobile networks do not. In addition, we propose ethnographic and participatory methods to aid the effective rollout of mesh inverse infrastructure with and for a given community. This paper describes and then analyzes a mesh for voice rollout within a situated context. We explain how to conduct informed community co-design and how to factor in local socio-political concerns that can impact on the design, rollout and subsequent maintenance of community-based wireless mesh networks. While we have not yet analyzed baseline and initial usage data, we do have new lessons to offer.

There is no doubt of the contributions made by mobile phones and mobile network operators in increasing access to communications in rural areas of developing countries. Yet how affordable is this ubiquitous access in such an ICT ecosystem? Using data from two stratified random surveys conducted in a South African rural community, this paper provides a unique in-depth picture of the expenditure and communication patterns of its dwellers. Results show a high access ratio of people using mobile phone services weekly and a high proportion of disposable income dedicated to a very constrained set of mobile phone services. Factors such as mobile phone charging and the extra charges added by airtime resellers contribute to increase the communication costs. This data and its analysis can be used by the following: regulators and government agencies to better design their policy implementations to provide universal service and access; competing industry players to understand the dynamics within rural communities to better target their products; civil society organizations to use it as a case in their efforts to make affordable communications a constitutional right.

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A systematic review of telemedicine projects in Colombia was conducted. We searched electronic databases, and also searched for relevant Internet websites. Each project manager was contacted by telephone to identify projects which had not actually been carried out. They were interviewed to request information about the projects they were managing, and whether they knew of other projects in Colombia. The search process identified 43 different projects, which were classified into two groups: telemedicine research initiatives and projects for providing health-care services via telemedicine. There were 32 projects which provided telemedicine services, of which 14 had been finished, 11 remained active, 4 were being implemented and no data were available about the state of the other 3. Health-care services had been provided using telemedicine to at least 550,000 patients. The projects had connected more than 650 health-care institutions, mainly in deprived areas of the country. Unfortunately, although many projects seem to have had a positive effect, none of them had been rigorously evaluated, and therefore in the absence of scientific evidence no general recommendations can be made. However, the methodology of the present study appears suitable for similar reviews of telemedicine in other developing countries.

It is often said that the Internet is ubiquitous in our daily lives, but this holds true only for those who can easily access it. In fact, billions of people are still digitally-disconnected, as bringing connectivity to certain zones does not make a good business case. The only solution for these unsatisfied potential users is to directly undertake the building of the infrastructure required to obtaining access to the Internet, typically forming groups in order to share the corresponding cost. This article presents a global classification and a summary of the main characteristics of different Alternative Network deployments arisen in the last years with an aim to provide Internet services, in places where mainstream network deployments do not exist or are not adequate solutions. The "Global Access to the Internet for All" Research Group of the Internet Research Task Force, where all authors actively participate, is interested in documenting these emerging deployments. As an outcome of this work, a classification has converged by consensus, where five criteria have been identified and, based on them, four different types of Alternative Networks have been identified and described with real-world examples. Such a classification is useful for a deeper understanding of the common characteristics behind existing and emerging Alternative Networks.