Wireless Africa - Community Owned Information Networks (COIN)

The aim of COIN is to remove barriers to enable bottom-up creation of access infrastructure. This is done by supporting low-cost, sustainable mesh networking infrastructure, initiated by the community as a means to bridge the barriers to access:

• Small, self-constructed antennas made from locally available material and connected to a low-cost WiFi card plugged into a computer. The innovative “home-brew” antenna, which uses a coffee tin and a section of bicycle spoke soldered into a special connector, can connect to anther point with a similar antenna 10km away. This allows local connectivity comparable to that of commercially available antennas.
• A small wireless router in a weatherproof casing on a pole. This allows community members could connect and form a community mesh network.
• Cost sharing of the cost of a link to the Internet by the community. Technology can be put in place at these gateways, which fairly allocates bandwidth among the users.
• A pay-as-you-go model, enabling community members to buy a slice of bandwidth from the owner of the Internet link.