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Dabba (company)
Dabba is a South African company that is pioneering the establishment of village telcos. It uses wireless technology to provide voice and data services to under-serviced areas. Dabba has developed a distributed community based ownership model that encourages local entrepreneurs to provide telephone services not served by fixed line telcos at affordable prices. Dabba was founded by Rael Lissoos & Manish Anant in 2004. He uses reprogrammed Wi-Fi routers as base stations, and open source software to build the components of a telecommunications network. Cheap Wi-Fi handsets are used to make calls. Dabba offers free calls in the area covered by the local network, and calls to 'phones on the national networks using pay-as-you-go cards. The first pilot network is in operation in Orange Farm, Gauteng, a township near Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into electronic signals that are transmitted via cables and other communication channels to another telephone which reproduces the sound to the receiving user. The term is derived from el, τῆλε (''tēle'', ''far'') and φωνή (''phōnē'', ''voice''), together meaning ''distant voice''. A common short form of the term is ''phone'', which came into use early in the telephone's history. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was the first to be granted a United States patent for a device that produced clearly intelligible replication of the human voice at a second device. This instrument was further developed by many others, and became rapidly indispensable in business, government, and in households. The essential elements of a telephone are a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves. These are the most widely used computer networks in the world, used globally in home and small office networks to link desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones, smart TVs, printers, and smart speakers together and to a wireless router to connect them to the Internet, and in wireless access points in public places like coffee shops, hotels, libraries and airports to provide visitors with Internet access for their mobile devices. ''Wi-Fi'' is a trademark of the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance, which restricts the use of the term ''Wi-Fi Certified'' to products that successfully complete interoperability certification testing. the Wi-Fi Alliance consisted of more than 800 companies from around the world. over 3.05 billion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Router (computing)
A router is a networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks. Routers perform the traffic directing functions between networks and on the global Internet. Data sent through a network, such as a web page or email, is in the form of data packets. A packet is typically forwarded from one router to another router through the networks that constitute an internetwork (e.g. the Internet) until it reaches its destination node. A router is connected to two or more data lines from different IP networks. When a data packet comes in on one of the lines, the router reads the network address information in the packet header to determine the ultimate destination. Then, using information in its routing table or routing policy, it directs the packet to the next network on its journey. The most familiar type of IP routers are home and small office routers that simply forward IP packets between the home computers and the Internet. More sophisticated routers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Source Software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner. Open-source software is a prominent example of open collaboration, meaning any capable user is able to participate online in development, making the number of possible contributors indefinite. The ability to examine the code facilitates public trust in the software. Open-source software development can bring in diverse perspectives beyond those of a single company. A 2008 report by the Standish Group stated that adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year for consumers. Open source code can be used for studying and allows capable end users to adapt software to their personal needs in a similar way user scripts a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telecommunications Network
A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, message switching, or packet switching, to pass messages and signals. Multiple nodes may cooperate to pass the message from an originating node to the destination node, via multiple network hops. For this routing function, each node in the network is assigned a network address for identification and locating it on the network. The collection of addresses in the network is called the address space of the network. Examples of telecommunications networks include computer networks, the Internet, the public switched telephone network (PSTN), the global Telex network, the aeronautical ACARS network, and the wireless radio networks of cell phone telecommunication providers. Network structure In general, every telecommunications network conceptually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Wireless Community Networks
South African wireless community networks are wireless networks that allow members to talk, send messages, share files and play games independent of the commercial landline and mobile telephone networks. Most of them use WiFi technology and many are wireless mesh networks. A wireless community network may connect to the public switched telephone network and/or the Internet, but there are various restrictions on connectivity in South Africa. Wireless community networks are particularly useful in areas where commercial telecommunications services are unavailable or unaffordable. Wireless User Groups (WUGs) in South African cities build up infrastructure and applications, as well as training members in wireless technology skills. Therefore, WUGs provide a fertile ground for new technology and applications that may have large social benefits in informal communities and rural areas of South Africa and neighboring countries. Background: South African Telecommunications Environment Sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orange Farm, Gauteng
Orange Farm ("Farma") is a township located approximately from Johannesburg in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It is the southernmost township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Its name, a misnomer given that oranges are grown in orchards instead of farms, has Dutch origins. It is one of the youngest townships in South Africa, with the original inhabitants, laid-off farm workers, taking up residency in 1988. Support for the population came slowly mostly from people who were tenants at the larger township of Soweto. The Orange Farm Water Crisis Committee, an offshoot of the South African Anti-Privatization Forum (AFP), has been very vocal and active against the privatization of water. Approximately 85% of the people work in Johannesburg. Most of the people use trains to get to work. 35% of the residents are unemployed. Infrastructure Orange Farm is a rapidly growing township with great infrastructural developments each year. The township has a larg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demographia, the Johannesburg–Pretoria urban area (combined because of strong transport links that make commuting feasible) is the 26th-largest in the world in terms of population, with 14,167,000 inhabitants. It is the provincial capital and largest city of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm. Due to the extremely large gold de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
