ISPU:Project Chapter

Introduction

ISPU Quelimane extension opened its doors in 1998. The Extension is situated in Quelimane the capital of the Northern Province Zambezia. The different range of services offered in ISPU as a whole varies significantly considering the location of the institution. There is a strong digital divide between the capital Maputo and Quelimane. The ICT infrastructures are very much limited and in some cases not developed at all, it is in the light of this project to collaborate with other project partners in the First Mile First Inch project within the Southern African region to bring innovative solutions in order to uplift the lives of individuals in member countries. The project seeks to contribute to the secondary school educational sector touching areas such as science and mathematics education including HIV and sex education. Gender is also of primary concern since uplifting the girl child will have a significant impact on development globally. Using the full capacities of Information and communication Technology will open up borders and break through the isolation for students, staff, and the people from Zambezia Province of Mozambique to the world community.

Policy and Legal Framework (current status)

The regulator in Mozambique is the Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações de Moçambique (INCM). In Mozambique regulation of the wireless Internet now focuses primarily on technology standards. If manufacturers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs adhere to technical standards designed to deal with interference, no approvals are required to operate equipment. You can buy it, take it out of the box, turn it on, and use it. At the same time, because operators have no vested rights to continue operation, this constitutes a nonexclusive use of the radio spectrum. Because of the newer technologies, you can do a lot with unlicensed spectrum. Under these rules, you may not cause harmful interference. And you must accept interference from somebody. Before 2004, the unlicensed wireless spectrum was set around the 2.4-Ghz band. In June 2003, t h e International Telecommunications Union made available the 5-Ghz band for license - exempt technology deployment, and Mozambique put in force this prerogative. However there is need to emphasize that unlicensed does not mean unregulated, and all manner of operator providing wireless services still needs to maintain a no-interference working plan and a “good neighbour” attitude. Unlicensed wireless technology can help Mozambique as a developing country implement Internet networks very quickly, and that has significant implications for accelerating the growth of information systems in the country. We are also seeing rural and suburban applications in Mozambique taking advantage of Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi has proven to be a technology with broad potential around the world.

Research Question

ELearning and the use of ICTs in education depend heavily on telecommunications infrastructures established by telecom companies. These telecommunications companies use mostly the Last Mile Last Inch philosophy. In ISPU Quelimane we would like to explore how First Mile First Inch Technologies can be used to develop Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Skills in Secondary School Students in Quelimane, and Providing Online Education Resource Tools for Instituto Superior Politécnico e Universitário (ISPU Quelimane) Students.

Implementation process

The overall goal of the project is build an affordable communication technology, in the local community by making best use of whatever sources are available. It is the belief of this project that using inexpensive off-the shelf equipment, a high speed data network can connect remote areas, to provide both broadband network access in areas that even dial up does not exist and to ultimately connect ISPU Quelimane and its neighbouring schools to the global internet. We believe that by working with our local community we can build a telecommunications infrastructure that benefits everyone who participates in it. The institutions interconnected are: Instituto superior Politécnico e Universitário (ISPU Quelimane) Instituto Médio Politécnico (IMEP) Patrice Lumumba Secondary School (ESPL) The main reason to interconnect ISPU and IMEP was to replace the existing aerial Ethernet connection and a switch acting as a repeater in the dormitory located half way through the buildings. This in principle is violating networking principles as UTP cables are not outdoor networking resources. In the long run a fibre optic backbone might be installed but the wireless infrastructure becomes a viable one. The ESPL is connected to the ISPU Quelimane network to make avail the e-learning application to the students. At this stage there is no intention to distribute internet or any World Wide Web service to ESPL, because of the low bandwidth that ISPU has.