D-Lab-ICT: spreading ICT innovation: Cambridge, Massachusetts

In order to take advantage of mobile band spectrums for example, licenses have to be acquired and regulation must be navigated in order to get an access point. Wi-Fi on the other hand has a much higher capacity and much lower costs associated with it, but is limited in coverage. With this in mind, I chose to work on this topic for my class. I joined a project called “FabFi” ), which enables individuals and communities to fabricate and deploy their own ICT infrastructure to serve local needs. FabFi provides long-range Wi-Fi connectivity using low cost materials to boost signals. Communities can also use this technology to build and manage wireless mesh networks for their own use. FabFi operates a pilot program in Nairobi, Kenya and is in the process of rolling out a large-scale network in Afghanistan. My specific role in the project was to help create a billing system that would keep track of bandwidth use and also provide a simple cashless means of payment. As part of the extended fieldwork for the class, this past January I had the opportunity to work with FabFi in Nairobi. I was piloting a system that would integrate M-Pesa mobile money payments with the FabFi network. M-Pesa is the revolutionary mobile money transfer system developed in Kenya by mobile network operator Safaricom. It has quickly become a necessary convenience in daily life in Kenya and there are attempts to replicate the model in other African countries. In the context of FabFi, instead of physically seeking a FabFi agent to make a direct payment and then have them restore your network access, or buying a scratch card to key in and restore access, the goal of this pilot was simple. Users with a registered M-Pesa account would be able to send payments to FabFi to automatically have ready present in developing countries to address new challenges. When talking about information communication technology (ICT) developing countries have often been pioneers, making great leaps and even surpassing more developed countries in usage and innovation, particularly in mobile communications. The main limitation in innovation in ICT has not been hardware or devices, or even entrepreneurship and in the autumn of 2011, I enrolled in an MIT course called D-Lab-ICT, which focuses on information and communication technologies. The goal of D-Lab is to engage students in applying technology to solve challenges in developing countries.