South African wireless community networks and community building

In South Africa, wireless community networks have emerged as a powerful tool for community building and social change. These networks have enabled marginalized communities to access information, communicate with each other, and organize around shared goals.

One notable example is the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement in South Africa, which has empowered communities to take control of their own technology and media. This movement has been facilitated by wireless community networks that provide a platform for sharing knowledge, skills, and resources.

Community networks have also played a crucial role in promoting digital literacy and access to information in underserved areas. For instance, the Khayelitsha Free Network in Cape Town has provided free internet access to residents, helping to bridge the digital divide and promote economic development.

By creating their own wireless community networks, South African communities are taking charge of their own technological futures and building more equitable and just societies.

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Johannesburg and Pretoria WUGs are two of the most notable community networks in South Africa. They were founded by passionate individuals who wanted to bring people together through wireless technology.

Johannesburg WUG (JAWUG) was the first wireless user group in South Africa, founded in 2002 by four students. It started as an experimental network between four students and quickly expanded to become a larger network.

JAWUG is not an ISP and its network is used purely for non-commercial and educational purposes. The network has a membership base of approximately 300 locations and is constantly expanding.

The Pretoria WUG (PTAWUG) was founded on 28 July 2007 and is exclusively funded by donations from the community. PTAWUG has a constitution that guarantees openness, free participation, and equality to all members.

PTAWUG is the 5th largest wireless network organization in the world with about 600 member connections. To avoid rental costs, all highsites are on privately owned properties, mostly in high areas with a good line of sight to the surrounding areas.

JAWUG and PTAWUG work closely together, with JAWUG helping to get PTAWUG off the ground and providing technical assistance to new wireless user groups.

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The Durban Wireless Community was founded in December 2004 by a group of people interested in 802.11 a/b/g wireless technology in Durban, the third most populous city in South Africa.

The group now has about 200 people on the mailing list and about 15 live nodes on the network spanning from Bluff to Umbilo, Morningside, Town, Tollgate and Westville.

It's impressive to see how a small meeting in January 2005 with just 4 attendees has grown into a thriving community with close ties to JAWUG.

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Zenzeleni is a wireless community network that provides affordable and reliable connectivity to rural communities in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It started in Mankosi and has since expanded to Zithulele and other areas.

The communities served by Zenzeleni were deliberately underdeveloped by the colonial and apartheid regimes, resulting in extremely high unemployment, deep poverty, and limited economic infrastructure. Today, unemployment in the area is around 98%.

Residents in these communities spend a significant portion of their monthly income on telecommunications, around 25% according to a five-year study by UWC. This is partly because families are dispersed around the country, and also because the telecommunications tariffs are some of the most expensive in the country.

The cost of telecommunications is exacerbated by local distributors charging a 40% margin, making a ZAR 5 voucher actually sell for ZAR 7. Residents also have to pay an additional ZAR 5 to recharge their phones, which can be a challenge for those without electricity at home.

Zenzeleni creates local internet service provider (ISP) businesses that allow communities to retain their spending internally, enabling them with affordable access to digital resources and a local source of income. It's estimated that 15 communities in the area spend over ZAR 20 million on telecommunications annually.

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Community Building is a vital aspect of South African wireless community networks. These networks are often driven by community members themselves, who come together to establish and maintain their own internet access.

In the town of Khayelitsha, for example, a community network was established by a group of residents who were frustrated with the lack of internet access in their area. This network, Khayelitsha Free Space, was launched in 2014 and has since provided internet access to thousands of people.

Community networks like this one rely on the contributions of their members, who often donate their time, skills, and resources to keep the network running. In some cases, community networks even provide training and education programs to help their members develop the skills they need to participate in the network's operations.

The Meraka Institute is a government-backed organization that promotes ICT development. They're working on sustainable information and communications technology in developing countries.

One of their programs, Wireless Africa, is researching ways to create community-owned wireless infrastructure. This includes looking at how projects in communities around South Africa, Angola, and Mozambique are able to create sustainable community-owned wireless infrastructure.

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They're also exploring ways to overcome technology barriers and enable bottom-up creation of wireless access infrastructure. This includes research into mesh networking, low-cost voice/messaging devices, low-cost access points and antennas, and network security.

The Wireless Africa program has installed experimental test bed mesh networks in Pretoria and Mpumalanga to understand issues such as scalability and quality of service.

The Peebles Valley mesh project is using wireless mesh networking as a low-cost first mile solution to connect people to the internet and each other.

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The Meraka Institute's Wireless Africa programme is researching ways to develop sustainable community-owned wireless infrastructure, with a focus on applications in health, education, and related service delivery areas.

In South Africa, the Peebles Valley mesh project is using wireless mesh networking as a low-cost first mile solution to connect people to the internet and each other. This project is testing if a rural community can take ownership of the network.

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The project uses "Cantennas", small, self-constructed antennas made from locally available materials, connected to a low-cost WiFi card plugged into a computer. This approach shows that community members can be empowered to create their own wireless infrastructure.

Zenzeleni's community-centred model offers a promising approach to addressing the digital divide in rural and impoverished areas. This model involves slow co-creation with and through the community, resulting in a network that is cared for and used by the community.

In Zenzeleni, you can see people huddled around hotspots, accessing internet services that are relevant to their needs. For example, a boy is watching soccer videos to improve his skills, while a young girl is accessing maths learning support videos.

Here are some key features of Zenzeleni's community-centred model:

Meshmerize is at the heart of this project, bringing stable internet connectivity to a community network aiming for 4,000 users by the end of 2023.

Mesh networks can be swiftly installed, adapting to unforeseen challenges without relying on specific locations or excessive infrastructure.

One of the key benefits of Meshmerize is its self-healing nature, ensuring uninterrupted service even if an access point is disrupted.

With its decentralized design, Meshmerize can navigate environmental challenges like strong winds or other circumstances that might damage the hardware.

Hive, the mesh network management tool, plays a pivotal role in overseeing the vast mesh network, ensuring consistent configuration across hundreds of nodes.

Here are some key features of Meshmerize that make it a great fit for this use case:

South Africa has a long history of socioeconomic disparities, with around 55.5% of the population living in poverty and 80% in rural areas. This legacy of apartheid has led to a digital divide, where people and communities lack connectivity and digital opportunities.

The country's high internet costs are a major barrier to internet use, making it difficult for many to access the digital world. Community networks are seen as a potential solution to bridge this gap.

In 2022, the School of Community Networks was established in South Africa, with the aim of enabling grassroots communities to promote digital inclusion on their own terms. The school brought together 21 students from seven different communities, who received skills development training and mentorship.

The students came from communities that struggle financially and lack access to affordable, reliable internet. The school covered their data costs for online training, allowing them to participate in online activities and access the learning management system.

The students were from the following communities:

These community networks have the potential to offer communities much-needed connectivity, infrastructure, skills, and revenue.

South Africa's telecommunications regulatory framework is designed to promote social inclusion, and it includes concessions that can be used by community networks to establish themselves with fewer bureaucratic burdens and costs.

One of these exemptions is the formal licence exemption for operating certain types of telecommunications infrastructure and services, which Zenzeleni has made use of.

The country also offers a licensing exemption with regards to Wi-Fi and television white space (TVWS) spectrum, allowing for higher radiated power than in many other countries.

In addition, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) has a flexible and low-cost fee structure for using other bands in backhaul links when community networks run out of channels in their licence-exempt spectrum.

However, despite these concessions, communities in rural areas still face significant obstacles in establishing community networks.

They often lack the knowledge and resources needed to navigate the complex regulatory landscape and access opportunities, including the ability to travel to regulatory offices and contract legal and technical services.

Fortunately, community networks like Zenzeleni have been able to overcome these obstacles with the help of collaborators such as the University of the Western Cape, Ellipsis Regulatory Solutions, and the Internet Society.

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South Africa is a country with a strong industrial capacity and political development, but it still struggles with the legacy of apartheid, making it one of the most unequal societies in the world.

Around 55.5% of the population lives in poverty, and this number reaches 80% in rural areas. This means that many people can't afford daily essentials or access basic services like education.

Wealth and poverty are largely racialised, with a majority poor black African population often unable to access resources or participate in the economy.

The digital divide in South Africa is a reflection of this socioeconomic reality, and it threatens future development by leaving behind communities that lack connectivity and digital opportunities.

Community networks like Zenzeleni are trying to change this by offering rural and impoverished communities a chance to own and manage their own communication services.

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