Remote communications for remote communities

The EU-funded SAMBA project has successfully tested ways to supply remote communities with interactive communications. The tests, which were conducted in Brazil and Italy, will provide villagers with a digital television signal - some for the very first time.

The SAMBA team developed low-cost, easy to use set-top boxes that are able to receive online communications via the power network that extends over ninety-five per cent of the populated areas. The boxes are connected to both the television and the mains power supply, using the power lines to communicate web speeds of around 2 megabytes per second; fast enough to send images and text files within seconds, and certainly good enough to host an interactive channel.

The chance to use an interactive digital channel to communicate with might be preferable for many remote communities, who may never have had access to the Internet before and are therefore unfamiliar with it, according to project coordinator Oscar Mayora Ibarra. “The internet is so powerful it puts the whole world in your room. But that may not necessarily include what is going on downstairs. And there are a lot of people who are not familiar with the Internet, but are very familiar with television.”

“There is content which you won’t go and search for but you might access it on a TV. For instance, circles of elderly people can use the television to share information. Sports clubs and societies can broadcast their information on a very local basis – in one village or one valley.”

The project received funding from the ICT stand of the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme for research.

For more information on the project, Christian Nielsen at Christian.Nielsen@esn.eu

Published: Monday, 14th December 2009 by Tom Freeman

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