First Cantenna installed in a rural setting connects!
15 July 2005

The first Meraka Institute Cantenna to be installed in a rural setting was successfully mounted at a house belonging to health worker Agnes Mdluli in Peebles valley, near White River in Mpumalanga on July 6 2005 . The Cantenna, part of the Meraka Institute's Community Owned Information Network (COIN) initiative under the Wireless Africa project banner, uses a coffee tin and a section of bicycle spoke soldered into a special connector. It can connect to another point with a similar antenna about 5km km away.

These small, self-constructed antennas which are made from locally available material are then connected to a low-cost WiFi card plugged into a computer. Alternatively, as is the case at the Sakhile High School and Agnes Mdluli's house, a small wireless router can be placed in a weatherproof casing on a pole to which several community members could connect and form a community mesh network. This technology has enabled the school's computer centre to gain internet access.

Mrs Agnes Mdluli's house was given priority on the premise that she works at the ACTS (Aids care training and support) clinic in Peeble's Valley. The clinic cares mostly for HIV/AIDS patients in that area and other surrounding villages and townships. The Cantenna will allow Mdluli to do research on HIV/AIDS and other health matters. She will also be able to make Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls to other health workers. Peebles valley, also known as the Masoyi tribal area is a poor community of some 220000 people where it's estimated that 33% of the sexually active population are HIV positive.

The Cantenna at her house feeds from the wireless router at the school, which in turn feeds from the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) link at the ACTS clinic.

“We're excited about this. We're excited for the community. Imagine the difference this will make in terms of accessing information and gaining knowledge,” said Meraka Institute's research leader David Johnson. Training will also be carried out to teach the community how to construct their own Cantennas, setup the wireless router and connect this to their computer.

Also at this historic installation was the Associated Press Television News (APTN) crew, who captured the entire event for distribution to their clients globally. APTN is the video arm of the Associated Press, the world's largest news agency, which supplies news footage to more than 500 broadcasters globally, including CNN, BBC, SKY NEWS, ITN, STAR TV ASIA, CBS and ABC.

“I cannot believe that I'm surfing the net, from my own home!” exclaimed Mdluli's teenaged daughter shortly after the Cantenna connected to the World Wide Web.

For more information on the Cantenna and other Wireless Africa projects, e-mail: David Johnson at, DJohnson@csir.co.za