[wsfii-discuss] [Fwd: Himalayan Effort AirJaldi is connecting rural communities through wifi and innovation. HIMANSHU KAKKAR (Outlook Business)]

Wed Aug 31 20:03:25 UTC 2011

bwo BytesforAll/ Fred Noronha

http://business.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?278077

KULDEEP CHAUDHARI
Himalayan Effort
AirJaldi is connecting rural communities through wifi and innovation.
HIMANSHU KAKKAR

Air Jaldi & Rural Broad Band

Started 2009
Employees 20
Customers 330 (mostly institutions)
Social Impact Facilitated access to information and development in rural and
remote areas.

***

Its name was born out of a joke, but AirJaldi is very serious business. The
social enterprise provides wireless broadband to remote areas across
Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It began its journey in sleepy old
Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, and now broadcasts to Garhwal and Kumaon in
Uttarakhand as well as a few regions of Jharkhand. Its efforts have brought
scores of rural communities online.

So, how exactly did it get the quirky name? A group of likeminded
individuals had banded together in Dharamsala to provide wi-fi broadband to
the region. “Taking a leaf from the much larger AirTel, we jokingly called
it AirJaldi,” explains Michael Ginguld, the company’s Founder and Director,
Operations. The name was later formalised, when AirJaldi was registered as a
non-profit organisation. Today, it purchases huge bandwidth from AirTel and
distributes it to its clients, offering speeds ranging from 256 kbps to 6
mbps for now. It is also capable of offering speeds as high as 60-70 mbps.

Ginguld, a native of Israel, proudly points into the distance from the
terrace of AirJaldi’s office: “This hill, that hill, across that valley,
that school on the top of hill
 our wireless broadband reaches there.”
Pointing at a vertical relay mounted on a rooftop, “Relays like this beam
wi-fi signals across the valley,” he says.

He makes it sound simple, but the job was far from easy, given the terrain
and the costs involved. AirJaldi got around these challenges by innovating
with infrastructure and technology. Inside the office, Ginguld points at a
relay—a tall steel rod with a router in the middle and a circular antenna on
top. The relay batteries are powered by solar energy. “It may not be the
most elegant thing, but it does the job,” says Ginguld. Heavy
precipitation—Dharamsala receives the most rain after Cherrapunji—doesn’t
affect it. The equipment will even withstand Rajasthan’s heat. AirJaldi has
deployed 30 such relays across Dharamsala. “We believe in desi, but
not jugaad,” says Ginguld.

The Tibetan Connect

AirJaldi was born out of the efforts of a group of people who visited
Dharamsala frequently. They developed an affinity for the place and its
people—mainly Tibetan refugees—and wanted to do something for its
development. Yahel Ben-David, an internet pioneer from Israel, was one such
individual. Ginguld’s love for McLeod Ganj—Upper Dharamsala—is almost as old
as the “Free Tibet” movement that he was associated with.

The group realised that a network that connected local institutions and the
community via the internet was needed. However, the infrastructure wasn’t
available. But things began moving in 2005, when two bandwidth ranges (2.4
ghz/5.8 ghz), known as wi-fi ranges, were delicensed by the Government of
India. The group could then interconnect locations without having to procure
a licence.

AirJaldi’s objective is to harness the capabilities of wireless connectivity
and benefit all communities.

Ben-David seized this opportunity. In 2005, eight campuses around Dharamsala
were networked, which included institutions, monasteries, NGOs and other
public serving institutions. Ginguld left his job in Boston and the moved to
Dharamsala in 2007. It wasn’t a difficult decision, he says: “My wife is
from here, and I feel affinity for the people.”

By then the informal group realised they could do more to link up rural
areas. And in 2007, they formed AirJaldi to harness the capabilities of
wireless connectivity and benefit all communities. They trained people,
shared knowledge and developed products. AirJaldi was buying bandwidth
wholesale and selling it retail. “The difference was: we were doing it in
areas where others didn’t want to go, doing it with local people and
innovating,” says Ginguld.

In order to scale up, it was decided to form a for-profit arm as well. And
so, in May 2009, a company called Rural Broad Band (RBB) was incorporated
with capital infusions by Indian partners and US investors. Apart from
Ginguld, Jim Forster, an ICT expert from the US (Chairman), Alok Gupta and
Manoj Arora are the other members on the company’s board. Ginguld won’t
reveal the quantum but says the investments aren’t very high: “From the
beginning till now, a few hundred thousand dollars have been invested.”

Following Demand

RBB doesn’t set up infrastructure and then look for customers. It’s the
other way round. Clients have approached it with projects in difficult
terrain. In Tehri Garhwal, for instance, the company has provided services
to Micro Banking Enterprises. Similarly, B2R, a rural BPO, was provided
connectivity for its centres in the Kumaon region. “It takes us long to get
clients. But in the long run, very few clients have left us,” says Ginguld.

RBB’s pricing is not cheap but equivalent to what other players charge.
Dharamsala, the first one that covers 100 x 70 km area, is profitable.
Garhwal is already on the road to profitability. It now has institutional
and private customers.

Tenzin Tsundue of the Tibetan Youth Congress, an NGO, has been using
AirJaldi’s services in the office and BSNL at home. He finds BSNL
bureaucratic and slow. In Dharamsala, AirJaldi’s competitors are Tennor and
Vayudoot. “But they are solely profit and city oriented,” says Ginguld.
AirJaldi, on the other hand, has more than one bottomline.

It takes great persistence to sustain a social enterprise. “For those who
stay firm, there is commercial potential in rural connectivity too,”
proclaims Ginguld.

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