Helping Wi-Fi Reach World's Poor

Though access to Wi-Fi is coveted by coffee shops and Internet cafes alike, to a research group on campus, Wi-Fi may be the gateway to the modern world for developing nations.

Bringing Wi-Fi to developing countries is one of the ways UC Berkeley research group TIER, Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions, is working to bring developing nations into the 21st century.

While camped out in the mountains of Venezuela in 2007, members of the research group established a record-breaking 382 kilometers, or about 240 miles, of Wi-Fi link across the country. Their goal at the time was not to provide people with Internet access, but to prove something on a global scale.

"We were shooting for the world record as a curiosity," said computer science doctoral candidate Sonesh Surana, a researcher who participated in the project in Venezuela. "It was more significant that (we proved) we could reach people in developing countries in rural areas."

Surana and others in the research group implemented the modified, low-cost and long-distance Wi-Fi technology, called WiLD. Tested in Venezuela, the network was then brought to India to link eye hospitals to rural areas where people would otherwise have no access to Internet or medical treatment. Using computers and Wi-Fi Internet, doctors are able to examine patients from miles away, right on their computer screen. According to Surana, this technology has helped treat the vision of about 10,000 people.

"People can also set up appointments (with doctors) so they don't have to travel so far and end up not having an appointment to be seen," said Surana, who has traveled to India multiple times to help set up the program.

Surana said unlike some other programs where an outside source sets up a system in a developing region, only to have it crumble once they leave, members of the research group work to make sure their program is self-sustainable, going back and forth to India to train doctors and staff.

The group's goal is not only to bring technology to the masses, but to bring that technology in a low-cost, user-friendly way that is sensitive to the area and the literacy of the people.

"There's not enough people with health care and education in Africa. This is the root cause of why Africa is crumbling," said researcher Melissa Ho, a doctoral candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Ho, who also worked with the Indian eye hospitals, won the 2008 Thomas I. Yamashita Prize for her technology research in developing nations. Ho said that with access to computers and information, "peace will start to take root and corruption will begin to work its way out."

Researchers with the group said their work not only incorporates solving global issues, but also each researcher's specialty.

"Being a social scientist, you really need to be in the field," said doctoral candidate Renee Kuriyan. "I've always been involved in development and (the group) is a timely topic."

Kuriyan has spent time in India evaluating how computer kiosks in rural areas are being used. After she graduates, she plans to go to work for Intel Research.

To expand the group's research, Ho is leading the effort to form a nonprofit organization inspired by the group that will use research to devise sustainable and easily replicated products and services for emerging regions.

"It's exciting," said Surana. "But it's in the very initial stages."

Tags: TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EMERGING REGIONS