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Management Information Systems

Notes New and creative enterprises can make rural and poor markets profitable, affordable, sustainable
and served in ways that meet national and local development objectives. But this requires
innovation, advanced technology and creative business and public policies. In order to make
universal access profitable – and in order for this wireless revolution to truly take off for these
communities – several critical innovations are necessary, including the following:
1. New and low-cost technologies, especially terrestrial wireless infrastructure:Per-line costs,

and prices for subscriber premises equipment, can and should be brought down, by an
order of magnitude, from thousands to hundreds of dollars.
2. Micro and small enterprises that provide locally tailored value-added services: A broad
basket of value-added services flowing from community-based ICT facilities can ensure
revenue flows and create value to the community.
3. Supportive public policy: Policy-makers must view rural and universal access as drivers
of development and not sources of government revenue. In particular, spectrum license
exemptions can allow for low entry barriers for small entrepreneurs.

9.1.1 Wireless Network Technologies

The Network Standards

A central requirement for profitability in the context of universal access is that capital costs for
network construction and user equipment is low. The good news is that new technologies –
especially in the terrestrial wireless domain – are dramatically driving down these costs.
In order to understand current wireless technologies it is necessary to first appreciate some of
the basic concepts. Consider a hypothetical wireless network installation, as depicted in Figure
9.2. This schematic drawing shows two radio towers (A and B), houses and other buildings (C),
and a personal computer inside a building (D). Radio tower A is connected through a wireline
link to an Internet point of presence owned by an Internet service provider. So the PC shown at
point D ultimately is connected to the Internet by several wireless links.

Each of these wireless links illustrates important differences in the way radio technologies can
be deployed. The link from radio tower A to tower B is a point-to-point connection, because it
supports just a single radio and antenna on either side of the link. A point-to-point radio connection
is a bit like a spotlight; it is a highly focused beam of radiation.

Figure 9.2: Connectivity in Wireless Networks

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