The system also made it easier for villagers to buy essential products such as fertilisers, pesticides, books and medicines, Mr Hasson added. "What we've done is created a catalogue of those products that they can order at the kiosk and get them delivered the next day via the bus," he said.

"We're bringing e-commerce to rural India."

Because many people in rural communities cannot read, and because the majority of the web is in English, villagers often rely on the person who operates the local computer to help them. Raj Kishor Swain, who runs the computer in the village of Satasankha, said he is now a popular man.

"Right now, more and more people are asking me about what can be done on the PC and internet," he said. "My objective is to show to the village youth that having a PC with connectivity is a viable business so that more and more unemployed youth can take up this as a self-employment opportunity."
"WiFi Buses drive rural Web use", Jason Margolis, BBC News, March 29, 2007. Also featured on BBC's and NPR's Radio Show, "The World", March 30, 2007.

United Villages, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed technology to wirelessly connect isolated villages to the Internet, using Wi-Fi in an unusual way. Using pre-paid cards, locals in remote villages write emails or record phone messages and save their words at computer kiosks installed in schools and community halls—and this is where United Villages comes in. Using what United Villages calls DakNet, buses fitted out with short-range Wi-Fi antennas pass through villages, automatically picking up stored emails and voice messages as they go. Once a bus reaches a city with Internet connectivity, it relays the emails and messages to their appointed destinations via the web.

“We're becoming the glue that sticks together those areas that have mobile connectivity and those that don't,” Mr. Hasson explains... In the digital age, doing good needn't rule out making money.
"Tech Tots: 25 Young Rebels Who Will Rock Tech", Dec. 18, 2006. Print Issue.

Real time communication is not the first concern of villagers that have neither electricity nor computers. But they too wish to take advantage of Internet services... The “Internet Postmen” of their Indian company, DakNet (www.unitedvillages.com) make their rounds by bike, truck, bus or boat with a short-range Wi-Fi antenna and a hard disk on board. In the villages that are served, a solar-powered computer and a Wi-Fi antenna sit enthroned in an “Internet kiosk”. For a few rupees, the villagers come everyday to drop off their emails, their files to be transmitted, their Google search requests, and even pre-recorded telephone messages... The highly economical service of prerecorded telephone messages sent using Internet telephony has proven to be a great success, to such an extent that in certain villages of Orissa (Central-Eastern India), the Internet postman passes by three times a day. In Cambodia, 150 schools also utilize this service, which is infinitely cheaper than a satellite connection. Rural areas of Costa Rica, Rwanda, and Paraguay are also served.

From "The Net at the End of the World", Nov. 18, 2006, Le Monde, Paris, France (English Translation)

“We have two options for accessing the internet for sending emails. Either we go to Khurda which is 35 kms from here and which has some cyber cafes offering broadband connectivity @ Rs. 20 per hour. Second option is to access dial-up internet from one cyber café in Kalapathar, but the charges here are very high @ Rs. 40 per hour and composing and sending one email can take as much as 10 to 15 minutes, because of the slow speeds, costing us Rs, 15 to 20. Therefore, we feel that the DakNet email @ Rs. 1 per email and Rs. 3 per email with attachment which is now being offered in Kalapathar is a very good alternative.”
Student in Kalapathar Village, Orissa, India commenting on United Villages DakNet Prepaid Services, Sept 19, 2006.

Since the last time we checked in with FirstMile a year and a half ago, the team has made great advances in improving their technology and making it more widely available. FMS has added phone services to its internet package, allowing customers to pay per minute of talking time or per message just as they had previously paid per email sent... With the inclusion of phone services, FirstMile is increasingly moving toward a self-sustaining model with digital refillable identity cards serving as the backbone of the system. With this feature, the company is working to increase its customer base rapidly...

"'We'll Do the Dirty Work': How First Mile Solutions Will Serve 220,000 Villages in India'", August 11, 2006

"You have drive-by McDonald's, and we have drive-by Wi-Fi," says Mr. Hasson...

United Villages, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company formed by Amir Alexander Hasson, a graduate of MIT's Sloan School of Management, is working... to network 50 villages in Orissa's Cuttack district, where bus-powered Wi-Fi service begins this month... UV will sell pre-paid cards, with phone number and email address assigned to them, in different denominations (up to 100 rupees, roughly $2.20). "One line gets shared by several thousand people," Mr. Hasson says, adding that a few transactions by individuals a month would make the service profitable for UV's Indian subsidiary.... "Drishtee pays UV as their ISP, and the kiosk operator pays UV 95 cents per card sold. We plan to network 220,000 villages. That adds up to a lot of money."

From "Drive-By Wi-Fi in India", March 13, 2006 Print Edition.

The World Resources Institute and US AID commissioned a Case Study on our technology entitled What Works: First Mile Solutions' DakNet Takes Rural Communities Online; Affordable, Asynchronous Internet Access for Rural Users, October 2005

As the bike rides up to the door of a remote school, in a matter of seconds the e-mail is uploaded to the school's computer and any of the school's outgoing messages get transferred to this box. Once the Motoman returns to the hub, the e-mail is sent by satellite to the Internet.

Watch CNN's story on FMS's "Internet Village Motoman" project in rural Cambodia, aired internationally, April, 2004:      >> Fast Connections (10MB)      >> Slow Connections (1.5MB)

It is a digital pony express: five Motomen ride their routes five days a week, downloading and uploading e-mail. The system, developed by a Boston company, First Mile Solutions, uses a receiver box powered by the motorcycle's battery. The driver need only roll slowly past the school to download all the village's outgoing e-mail and deliver incoming e-mail. The school's computer system and antenna are powered by solar panels. Newly collected data is stored for the day in a computer strapped to the back of the motorcycle. At dusk, the motorcycles converge on the provincial capital, Ban Lung, where an advanced school is equipped with a satellite dish, allowing a bulk e-mail exchange with the outside world.

From "Rural Cambodia, Though Far Off the Grid, Is Finding Its Way Online" featured in NY Times print edition, Jan 26, 2004

For a few seconds every day, a school building in rural Cambodia with no electricity, running water, telephone lines, or cell phones becomes an Internet hotspot.
From "The digital Pony Express" (or pdf), Print and Web editions, July 31, 2005

In the hills of northeastern Cambodia, five men on motorcycles are connecting rural villages to one another, their government, medical specialists and the Internet... First Mile Solutions' Village Area Networking Kit is expected to be priced at $500 to $600 when released, a fraction of the cost of the electricity and communications infrastructure that would otherwise be necessary to deliver e-mail to the villages.

From "It Takes an Internet Village" (subscription required) from the WSJ Europe and Asia print editions, Jan. 21, 2004.

On Nov. 8, a ceremony was held in another town, Pailin, the last stronghoFor a few seconds every day, a school building in rural Cambodia with no electricity, running water, telephone lines, or cell phones becomes an Internet hotspot.ld of the Khmer Rouge, the former communist government of Cambodia, to mark the launch of its link to the rest of the world through wi-fi. "[Pailin] ...does not have copper phones, and it is out of the range of cellular phones, but it does have roads," said Hasson. "This is a way to leverage the transportation infrastructure to create a telecommunications infrastructure." "...Launching this in Pailin will be different for us and for all of the people involved," said Hasson. "Literacy rates are higher in Pailin than in the other areas we have worked. There is more of an interest in the Internet and communications, and we are going to make an effort to get the whole village, including the elders, involved."
From "Long Distance House Calls", Print and Web editions, December 12, 2004.

Right now, in Cambodia, a motorcycle equipped with a wi-fi enabled computer is speeding over paths often impassible to cars, following a route that passes by schools in villages so remote that they have no phone and no running water. The motorcycle is making drive-by data deliveries. Before this motorcycle began making its rounds, the rainy season essentially cut these villages off from the rest of the world. “You stay stuck in the 12th century,” said Bernard Krisher, chairman of American Assistance for Cambodia, a non-governmental organization that has built schools and hospitals in that country. But thanks to technology developed at the MIT Media Lab and to the commercialization efforts of former MIT students Amir Alexander Hasson and Rich Fletcher, the motorcycle enables these remote villages to communicate over the Internet. “We are pitching ourselves as the Grameen Phone for villages that fall outside of cellular service,” Hasson said.
From "The Village People", Print and Web editions, December 13, 2004.

Después de su recorrido, el bus regresa a su punto de partida. Envía automáticamente por wi-fi los mensajes almacenados, que van siendo distribuidos de manera asincrónica a sus destinatarios. Basta que al día siguiente baje las respuestas antes de salir para que los habitantes de los pueblos de la región puedan beneficiarse de una comunicación con el resto del mundo por un costo 20 veces inferior al de una línea telefónica.
From "Una alternativa, la conexion intermitente", Print and Web editions, June 9, 2005. Spain

DakNet provides extradinarily low-cost digital communication, letting remote villages leapfrog past the expense of traditional connectivity solutions and begin development of a full-coverage broadband wireless infrastructure.

From IEEE Computer Outlook magazine, Cover Story, "DakNet: Rethinking Connectivity in Developing Nations"

...but perhaps the cleverest plan to put the internet on wheels comes from a cunning scheme to provide e-mail access in rural India using buses. Given the reach of the bus network, it is estimated that this approach could provide national e-mail coverage for a paltry $15m. E-mail by bus—why not?

From print edition, "The Internet, On Wheels"

Wireless broadband can have the biggest impact in rural areas where there is the least infrastructure... where a little bit of wireless can go a long way.
First Mile Solutions has been working to develop an affordable, low-risk wireless infrastructure to bridge the digital divide and jumpstart the rural communications market... FMS also builds human-resource development capacity by training local teams about wireless networking, empowering them to maintain, expand, and upgrade the network themselves.

From book, "The Wireless Internet Opportunity for Developing Countries"

First Mile Solutions puts Mobile Internet Access Points on vehicles to bridge the digital divide... this combination of high-tech and low-tech is called "appropriate technology".

From radio show "The World" (click here for full 5 minute audio segment, 1.5MB, requires Windows Media Player)

Through an innovative effort between a wireless technology company [First Mile Solutions] and a nongovernment organization, email, search, and other Internet-based services are now available to remote schools and health centers in Cambodia.

From report, "Closing Rural Cambodia's 'Digital Divide' on Motorcycles"

"The pilot projects have proved their ability to wirelessly and automatically collect, transport and deliver data at high speeds to and from kiosk-based computers with Wi-Fi cards", according to the department of industrial policy and promotion secretary Rajeeva Ratna Shah...
According to First Mile Solutions founder Amir Alexander Hasson, who helped initiate the two DakNet Wi-Fi pilot projects in Tikawali, "The benefits of using this low-cost wireless network which is easy to set up and maintain are already emerging."

From article "DakNet Wi-Fi All Set To Connect Rural India Soon"

DakNet uses a unique combination of physical and wireless transport to offer data connectivity to regions lacking communication infrastructure. The hybrid network architecture (patent pending) enables high-bandwidth intranet and Internet connectivity among kiosks and between kiosks and hubs.

From report, "CONNECTING REMOTE COMMUNITIES"

Hasson's experiment with wireless internet was set up on a variety of vehicles in India. His team would drive a bus that would automatically synchronise with another computer located in the village.

From article, "The Revolution Will Be Wireless, Experts Say" at United Nations Press conference

For developing countries, a wireless-enabled bus may be responsible for bringing connectivity to their locale... DakNet is an exportable solution for the 'first mile' with a low-cost wireless network that is easy to set up and maintain.

From "WiFi Delivers For Developing Countries"

A dot-com dream with a do-good twist: [First Mile Solutions] aims to bring the Net to Third World Villages.


[First Mile Solutions] is communication technology for rural areas… allowing individuals and businesses in remote areas to send data: email, photos, video etc., anywhere in the world, using inexpensive technology and existing transportation channels.


[First Mile Solutions] will set up low-cost data-delivery systems in developing countries… setting up kiosks in village centers, from which people can connect to an Internet service provider and exchange data. [First Mile Solutions] reaches out to provide services to people across the world and will first launch in India, where there is demonstrated demand.

…better than the phone line. [translated from Hindi]
-Sanjay Chauhan, Indian Villager, DakNet Demo User

If you would like to feature First Mile Solutions in a media-related publication, please contact pr@firstmilesolutions.com.