We selected Izazi, one of the villages in the Iringa district in Tanzania, as a pilot site for providing Internet Lite for All. Izazi is located at the Mtera dam, and it's only about 11 km to the towers providing Mobile Broadband. Though, we had heard: "we can't connect Izazi. The village is behind a hill, and we can't bring Internet there."
Thus, a perfect place to prove that at least "one information spot per village" is suitable. As we had been in Izazi before to inform our plans, people were anxiously waiting for the realisation. And, it took only 90 min to provide the information spot, thanks to the help we received.
Our equipment consisted of a 6 m pole, a directive antenna to catch the mobile network and our Local Network Control Centre (LNCC), providing the Wifi information spot. For more technical information, as well as the costs of the equipment, please visit BasicInternet.no/Solutions.
The antenna points to the mobile cell towers located in Migoli. An Internet cable connects to our LNCC, located within the office building. That's all. Fixing the antenna to the mast, bringing the cable down and connecting to the LNCC - all done in 90 min, as long as a soccer match takes.
Due to the location 6 m above ground, a much better reception was achieved: From "no 3G network" when using a mobile phone, we achieved a download speed of 20 Mbit/s, which is excellent using a 3G network. As 3G mobile networks having a varying coverage and capacity, we will usually see lower connection speeds.
As the installation was successful, we got the request to also cover the health spot/medical dispensary, being around 4 km closer to the Mtera dam.
Read more? Please visit our wiki BasicInternet.no/Villages