IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 30

challenged remote rural area of the Peruvian Amazon
in a region that has minimal prospects of adequate
digital connectivity for the next ten years if left to commercial organizations. Given that similar situations
are found in various parts of the world and the fact
that governments, telecommunications companies,
and international organizations have not been able
to provide communications that would benefit health
care, education and other needs, this article also provides generalizations of our experiences for international use.
We describe collaborations, socialization, the role
of a local partner, logistical considerations, dealing
with local and international contractors, the balance
between international and local volunteers, and choice
of technology. The initial application of the network is
health. We have focused this description on the importance of collaboration among the many stakeholders
in order to ensure that the network is maintained and
expanded by local people and organizations.
This article also suggests an adapted business plan
for short-, medium-, and long-term sustainability. The
plan evolves over time and involves local participation in the construction, maintenance, and expansion of services and the physical telecommunications
network. The business model provides an incentive
for local people to add services to the network including community kiosks, education, local government,
videoconferencing, and Internet access for local businesses and citizens, with the creation of community
telecoms as a final stage. The community nature of the
model, the utilization of appropriate technology, and
the emphasis on sustainability allows it to be cost effective for local communications.
Due to space limitations, this article gives only a
glimpse of the experiences acquired over more than
three years. Future work will include more in-depth
description of various issues, the creation of a more
formal framework and methodologies for the implementation of these projects, and an in-depth description of the business plan. Future work will need to be
reinforced with the results of other projects currently
being carried out in other parts of the world as part of
IEEE's ongoing contribution to humanity and to those
in greatest need.

Author Information
Martin J. Murillo is with Notre Dame Global Adaptation
Index, University of Notre Dame, U.S.A. He has served
as a volunteer project manager in various remote connectivity projects, as part of IEEE's Humanitarian Technology Challenge. Email: murillo@ieee.org.
Juan A. Paco is the director of the Grupo de Telecomunicaciones Rurales of the Pontifical Catholic

University of Peru, one of the leading worldwide entities
specialized in rural long-distance telecommunications.
Email: jpaco@pucp.edu.pe.
David Wright is a Full Professor with the Tefler School
of Management, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
Email: wright@teffler.uottawa.ca.

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