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Welcome to the First Mile First Inch (FMFI) site

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Background

Basic access to communication and information services remains an obstacle to the economic development of low-density (rural) communities. The aim of the FMFI project is to identify and develop models and technology that will overcome these obstacles. The project will also establish a network of researchers and a community of innovators to research least cost, open source solutions for community projects. A well-managed organisation of a number of sub-projects with various project collaborators in the three different African countries of Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, will constitute the beginnings of the FMFI initiatives.

The rapid expansion of telecommunications infrastructure in recent years has helped to bridge the digital divide to a limited extent. The technology solutions developed to date are still expensive for rural communities, since they are developed with urban users in mind and cater mostly for the more affluent developed world populations.

Large communications infrastructure service providers, such as Telcos, often refer to the end point of their distribution networks as the "last mile". This is usually the most challenging and least desirable part of their network as it is often the most expensive and most difficult part to manage. This is particularly challenging in rural environments as this concerns the interface with rural communities. Finding the proper solutions to reduce these connection costs could increase access opportunities in rural areas.

This project aims to address the needs of rural communities by exploring and implementing potential innovative low-cost technologies for internet access and connection to the global information society and to compare the sustainability of each of these for remote rural communities. Read more...

FMFI Network of researchers

FMFI Network of Researchers

Angola AngoNet under the Development Workshop

Mozambique Centre for Informatics, Eduardo Mondlane University (CIUEM) & Mozambique Information and Communication Technology Institute (MICTI) Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM) SchoolNet Mozambique & Ministry of Education Higher Polytechnic and University Institute (ISPU)

South Africa CSIR, Meraka Institute (also coordinators of the network) University of the Western Cape (UWC) & University of Cape Town (UCT) Translate.org Tshwane Metropolitan Council

FMFI Concepts

FMFI Concepts

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