Rural Connectivity Technologies Cost Analysis

Rural areas of Tanzania are still disadvantaged in terms of diffusion of IP-based services; this is due to lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures, especially lack of connectivity. One of the limitations for connectivity problems in rural areas of Tanzania is the high cost to establish infrastructures for IP-based services [1-2]. However the cost of connectivity varies from one technology to the other and at the same time, the cost is also different from one operator (service provider) to another within the country. This paper presents development of software system to calculate cost of connectivity to rural areas of Tanzania. The system is developed to make an easy access of connectivity cost from different technologies and different operators. The development of the calculator follows the V-model software development lifecycle. The calculator is used to evaluate the economic viability of different technologies considered as being potential candidates to provide rural connectivity. In this paper, the evaluation is based on the techno-economic analysis approach. {"references": ["Sedoyeka, E. Hunaiti, Z. Al Nabhan, M. Balachandran, W. (2008).\nWiMAX Mesh networks for underserved areas. In Proceedings of the\n2008 IEEE/ACS International Conference on Computer Systems and\nApplications - Vol 00. Pp 1070-1075. ISBN: 978-1-4244-1967-8. IEEE\nComputer Society Washington, DC, USA.", "Simba, F., Mjema, E.C., Mvungi, N.H., Lena, T., Mwinyiwiwa,\nB.M.M., (2009). Strategies for Connectivity Configuration to Access e-\nLearning Resources: Case of Rural Secondary School in Tanzania. In\nProceedings of World Academy of Science and Technology. ISSN\n2070-3742. Vol. 54. Pp 889 - 894. Paris, France.", "The Guardian. (2009). The Tanzania local news paper accesses online\nvia the ippmedia ippmedia.com on 23rd July, 2009.", "SEACOM (2009). Seacom Goes Live in East Africa\nhttp://www.seacom.mu/intro.html accessed on 23rd July, 2009", "eThinkTanktz, (2009). Seacom has arrived.....\nhttp://groups.yahoo.com . Accessed on 27th July,\n2009", "MST Minister-s Speech, (2009).\nhttp://mst.go.tz accessed on 23rd July, 2009.", "Lenoir, M. (2008). Building a Wireless Mesh Network in Sengerema,\nTanzania\nhttp://iicd.org", "TTN Report (2008). A TTN workshop: The Sengerema Wireless Shared\nCommunity Network\nOctober 19-24 2008.\nhttp://swopnet.or.tz accessed\non 28th July, 2009.", "Geocities, (2009).\nhttp://geocities.com accessed on 22th july, 2009.\n[10] free enclopedia, (2009). en.wikipedia.org) accessed on 20th July, 2009.\n[11] TCRA, (2009). List of licensed Service Providers in Tanzania.\nhttp://www.tcra. go.tz CLFlicensed_ operators. php accessed\non 19th July, 2009.\n[12] Jerman-Bla\u017ei\u2500\u00ec, B (2007). Techno-economic analysis and empirical\nstudy of network broadband investment: The case of backbone\nupgrading. Journal of Information Systems Frontiers. Volume 10,\nNumber 1. Pp 103-110. ISSN 1387-3326 (Print) 1572-9419 (Online).\nSpringer Netherlands.\n[13] Mishra, S. M., Hwang, J., Filippini, D., Moazzami, T. D, R. and\nSubramanian, L. (2005). UCB Technical Report UCB/CSD-05-1411:\nEconomic Analysis of Networking Technologies for Rural Developing\nRegions.\n[14] Wikipedia, (2009) en.wikipedia.org on 28th July, 2009.\n[15] Cadman, R; Dineen, C; Twomey, P. 2006. Trends in Economics and\nFinance. Volume II: Use of Economic Modeling in\nTelecommunications. ITU Report.\n[16] Raman, B and Chebrolu, K. (2007) \"Design and Evaluation of a new\nMAC Protocol for LongDistance 802.11 Mesh Networks\". In ACM\nMOBICOM.\n[17] Vodacom Internet Bomba, (2009).\nhttp://vodacom.co.tz accessed on\n23rd July, 2009."]}