Inveneo and Green WiFi Announce Partnership to Jointly Develop and Deliver Solar-Powered WiFi to Remote and Rural Communities

Two United-States-based social enterprise groups - Inveneo and Green-WiFi - are working to distribute a low-cost, solar-powered mesh wireless networks products solution to improve ease of installation and to reduce costs for rural wireless networking around the world. The two organisations hope that the "SoFi" solution will contribute to bridging of the digital divide.

Green WiFi's product, planned for limited trial release at the end of 2006/early 2007, consists of a small form factor solar-powered WiFi node, a battery, and an intelligent charge control system. In an effort to address what the organisation feels is the biggest barrier to bridging the digital divide, SoFi has been developed to respond to the lack of reliable electricity in developing areas required to power the network. Designed to run out-of-the-box with no systems integration or power requirements, "all that is required is a single source of broadband access. Green WiFi nodes can then be deployed on rooftops to form a self-healing network that hops the source signal over a virtual 802.11b/g grid. Because these nodes require no fixed installation or power tie-ins, these nodes can form an unplanned, mobile grid that can grow or be relocated as needed." To learn more about the technical specifics of Green WiFi's solution, click here.

Inveneo plans to trial Green WiFi's SoFis and incorporate them into its portfolio of information and communication technology (ICT) solutions for non-government organisations (NGOs), local governments, private entities, and the communities they serve. The goal is to make ICT more accessible, easier to use, and supportable so that organisations have the tools to effectively deliver development, education, and health services to rural communities. By incorporating Green WiFi's product, Inveneo hopes to improve upon its own solution - the Inveneo Communications System, which is described as having "ultra-low power usage, low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware and the Asterisk open-source software" and thus being "affordable to purchase and sustainable to operate."