Case Study – TunapandaNET Community NetworkJosephine Miliza – josephine@tunapanda.org

Photo credit– Internet Society

We’ve Connected the Easy HalfBillions of People on

EarthAverage Annual

Income

Affordable Monthly Communication

Spend

1st Billion $29,206 $205

2nd Billion $12,702 $53

3rd Billion $5,540 $23

4th Billion $2,987 $12

5th Billion $1,771 $7

6th Billion $1,065 $4.4

7th Billion $540 $2.25

Source: Richard Thanki, University of Southhampton from UN & ITU dataCC- Steve Song

Barriers to Getting Connected

Source: ITU

Who are the Unconnected?

Source: ITU

Community Networks in Africa

• Holistic approach • Bottom-up models started by

local communities to address connectivity gaps

• Human –centered – built with, for and by the community.

• Peer to peer• Non commercialized• Catalyze local economies

and drive adoption of technology

CNs in Africa -12 African countries. 25 are considered active

ZenzeleniEastern Cape, South Africa

TunapandaNETKibera, Nairobi Kenya

BOSCO

Uganda

Macha Works

Zambia

Community Networks in Africa6

Understanding Needs

Technical Engineering

TunapandaNET Topology

Core Network Infrastructure

At Tunapanda, we have the following:

Sector antennas with radios covering 120 degrees.

Distribution Layer

Have two high points that have an even better coverage to the other nodes.

Access Layer

These are:• Schools• Community centers such as

ICT centers, hubs• Health centers

Project Costs

• Equipment costs• Internet costs—Fiber

installation and monthly costs

• Supporting infrastructure—mounting brackets

Connected Schools

• Provision of internet and digital educational tools and resources

• Training teachers on digital literacy and ICTs for education

• Training students on tech and digital design topics such as robotics, design thinking, coding and digital story telling

Connected Youth

• Networking – design, implementation and maintenance

• Programming• Computer hardware & software

maintenance• ICT tools for learning and earning

Connected Women

• Digital literacy• ICT tools for managing

small business• ICTs and governance – how

to utilize ICTs to amplify their voices

Areas of Growth• Bandwidth management• Network monitoring• Network security• Voucher system for users

Looking Ahead

• Diversification of services offering – webhosting services

• Local content platforms - e-commerce, health applications, local job postings.

Partners

Resources

• Internet Society - https://www.internetsociety.org/issues/community-networks/

• APC - https://www.apc.org/en/project/connecting-unconnected-supporting-community-networks-and-other-community-based-connectivity

• https://www.apc.org/en/tags/community-networks• Community networks Forum- https://communitynetworks.group/