The Super Village, which owns the common WiFi on the Sun

A remote village in the eastern Cape Province of South Africa is Mankocchi. With just 6,000 people living in the village, the nearest city is 60 kilometers away. The villagers are doing their lives without any facilities we use in towns.


But they have a public Wi-Fi facility. Not surprisingly! How are they managing it?


Mankoci

Mankocchi is one of the poorest villages in Africa. There are also many villages there. Most of the houses in the village do not have electricity connections. Instead people use battery operated devices. They charge their mobile phones and charge local shops. Above all, the price for Internet data in the country is absurd. Instead of basic facilities such as food, education and transportation, people spend about 22 percent of their monthly income on internet charges. . This is necessary, but very wasteful.


Weston Cape

However, the Mankocchi village used its fortunes somehow. In 2012, the village joined Weston Research University's Research Group. Its purpose is to test the model for the telecommunication facilities of wasted villages. This means that the rural community is cheap and at the same time providing sustainable telecommunication facilities. The Mankocchi village now successfully demonstrates how this system works.


ZenGeline Networks Project

The so-called Zenzeline networks project is the translation of the local language isiocosa, 'Do It Yourself'. Although it is officially an Internet Service Provider (ISP), it is the first company to conduct a local cooperative in South Africa. ZenGeline Company installs and maintains the necessary infrastructure for Internet connectivity and sells its own voice calls and Internet data packages to the public.


At affordable prices

As it is an unfriendly enterprise, Internet services provide affordable cost to people in the area and provide additional employment for the local community.


We have helped people with guidance and guidance

Bill Tucker, a professor of computer science at Western Cape University and one of the Jenzhelini project implementers, said in a social web site: "We have approached local leaders to help establish the Zenzeline Network and guide the people there. In the end, those people are doing this project themselves'


30 square kilometers

The group designed a network for their network and created a dozen network stations. All of the sunspot-driven roads are located inside and outside the houses of the Mankocchi village. These WiFi stations offer about 30 square kilometers of area. As they get exemption from fees from the National ISP licensing system, the cost for operating Zenzlein's company has been reduced and its services offer at cheaper prices.


20 to 40 times are cheap

Additionally, people can directly go to solar power plants and charge their handset at low rates. In South Africa, casual voice calls cost around Rs 7.10 per minute (at Indian value) per minute. However, Zenjeline gives it a price of 0.95 per minute. Data rates are similarly 20 to 40 times cheaper