Indian Project develops an open source low-cost prototype to provide affordable broadband

The Indian Gram Marg Solution project is one of the five semi-finalists of the Mozilla `Equal Rating Innovation Challenge’. The Mumbai-based team led by Prof. Abhay Karandikar, has successfully developed an open source low-cost prototype to provide affordable broadband access to the Internet in rural communities utilizing Television White Space Spectrum.

Other projects in the reckoning for the top honour include Freemium Mobile Internet (FMI) of Canada, AfriFi: Free Public Wi-Fi of South Africa, Free Networks P2P Cooperative of Brazil and Zenzeleni `Do it for yourselves’ Networks (ZN) of South Africa.

Mozilla, the non-profit organisation behind the open source browser Firefox, launched the `Equal Rating Innovation Challenge’ in October 2016 as part of its endeavor to help catalyze new thinking and innovation for providing open Internet access to communities living without it. It called out to entrepreneurs, designers, researchers and innovators from all over the world to propose creative and scalable ideas that can cultivate digital literacy and provide affordable access to the Internet’s full diversity. Mozilla offered an award of $250,000 in funding and expert mentorship to bring these solutions to the market.

Following eight weeks of mentorship for the semifinalists, on March 9, Mozilla will host a day-long event in New York City on the topic of affordable access and innovation.