The University of the Western Cape has introduced a new model for Village Telco’s Mesh Potato telecommunications device that promises to make the technology sustainable in the long term in rural communities. Village Telco was incorporated by Steve Song in 2011 during a three-year stint
Browsing: Mesh Potato
Episode 6 of SA’s business technology podcast, TalkCentral, is now available for download. This week, your hosts Duncan McLeod and Candice Jones reflect on Gareth Knight’s superb Tech4Africa conference. We also talk about Andile Ngcaba’s fibre network roll-out plan, Steve Song and the Mesh Potato project, Justin Spratt’s appointment as managing partner at Quirk eMarketing, the corruption allegations involving department of home affairs officials and Lefatshe Technology, Neotel’s launch of prepaid services
Could an electronic “potato” rescue Africa from poorly developed and expensive communications infrastructure? Steve Song, telecommunications fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, thinks it could go a long way in helping. Song is involved in a project that is developing an innovative open-source project called the Mesh Potato, a sub-US$100 device that he says will bring cheap communications access to the continent.