Remote Village IT project 

Jhai Foundation

VoIP, Constructed Computers, Bicycle generators, Compact Flash Cards, Debian Linux,

Local and Internet telecommunications for displaced villages

To provide communication and elementary computer capabilities to vilages displaced by bombing to a valley out of cell phone range and without electrical power or telephones.

A  pilot prototype was assembled and demonstrated in July of 2002 in San Francisco, transmitting data and images over a 3 km link using directional antennas. With the help of satellite-generated topographical maps the villages were located relative to the terrain, and likely relay points were identified on a mountain ridge overlooking the villages.n January 2003 a test was run using laptops to communicate from the village of Phon Kham over the mountain to Phon Hong and thence to the Internet. Phone calls, email and images were transmitted, laying to rest reservations expressed by some about the technical feasibility of the project. In February the first attempt was made to install the system, but problems with software drivers caused major delays and the effort had to be called off when two hard disk drives were scrambled by a power failure.

 Since then the system has been working reliably and has been demonstrated at the ICT for Development platform at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva in December 2003.

The Fonly Institute is a consulting research and development organization located in the heart of Silicon Valley, California, USA. Our team has more than 50 years combined experience developing groundbreaking products that place computer power in the hands of ordinary people.