FreeNetworks.org is a non-profit developer of online community networks
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FreeNetworks.org
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About this photo
For the past several years, the Radio Communications Unit of the ARPL has held a School on Digital Radio Communications for Research and Training in Developing Countries at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. The school is held annually and is sponsored by the UN.
In February of 2004, I had a chance to work with 50 students from developing nations all over the world, mostly from Africa and South America. Many of these students live in areas that barely have power, and may have one phone serving an area of a couple of hundred square miles. Many areas still use X.25 equipment to provide data links of 9600 baud or less.
The proper application of wireless technology can bring phone and internet service to billions of people who are not yet online. The training provided by the ICTP provides an excellent starting point for these students, teaching everything from radio propagation and antenna design to Linux administration. They produce an excellent handbook that is distributed to each student and is also made available for free download. Their training concluded with field work that required that they build a point-to-point link of several kilometers using antennas they built themselves. They were not only able to establish a 13km link, but were able to use it for realtime video conferencing.
Contact
- Registercom
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- New York NY
- US 10018
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- +1.9027492701
