With only a preliminary help to start up the village’s own
mesh network, would Mankosi village, South Africa’s do it yourself internet
serves as a good example for those still can’t connect to the internet due to
their remote location?
By: Ringo Bones
Even though the project got its start back in 2017, Mankosi
village, South Africa’s Do It Yourself – also called Zenseleni – in the local
language recently got press notice not only for its ongoing success, but
primarily for its lower user fees in comparison to other major
telecommunication company owned internet networks in other parts of the African
continent. In Mankosi, you can get one full month of internet for less than 2
US dollars – about 1.70 US dollars in fact.
When the villagers of Mankosi first heard about this thing
called the internet and how it could help them in touch cheaply while helping
them with all manner of information research, the village, with the help of the
University of Western Cape built a mesh network that later became known as Zenzeleni
– which means do-it-yourself in their local language. The village runs its own
mesh networks that are then linked to the internet. Due to the relatively
remote location of Mankosi village, a mesh network based internet system is much
cheaper to operate than a conventional single mast based network more often
used by major telecommunication companies / internet service providers to
locate relatively remote areas to the internet. Mankosi’s messed network system
was initially ran on off the grid solar photovoltaic power generating systems,
although the village got recently connected to the country’s main electrical
grid back in 2018 which further reduced their operating costs.
Due to the economies of scale, the network still manages to
earn a profit since it was started back in 2017 even at the price that they
charge. The Mankosi village network also make money by selling
voice-over-internet-protocol vouchers that people can use to talk to each
other. This cost about 17-percent of what people normally pay to make calls in
South Africa. Zenzeleni instead charge 50-percent of network charges and thus
makes a profit. The profit is used to maintain the network and to fund other
development projects within the villages. Mankosi’s Zenzeleni network still
runs till this day because the University of Western Cape trained several
villagers – and they still do – to install and maintain the towers as in-house
technicians.
