Innovative telecom project to benefit rural communities

A low-cost community cellular networks project of the University of the Philippines-Diliman (UP-D) and University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) topped this year’s Information Society Innovation Fund (ISIF Asia) Awards.

The joint research project of UP-D and UC Berkeley cuts the cost of basic calls and short message service / text nessages at a fraction of the cost versus traditional commercial telecommunications networks.

The “Village Base Station-Connecting Communities through Mobile Networks” or VBTS-CoCoMoNets bested 236 other entries from 28 countries in Asia to capture the ISIF Asia Awards 2018, a program supporting creative internet solutions to development needs in the Asia Pacific to achieve positive social and economic development.

The VBTS-CoCoMoNets addresses the lack of mobile phone access by establishing Community Cellular Networks (CCNs) in rural sites in the Philippines.

CCNs are low-power, low-cost 2G base stations that enable users to make basic calls and send text messages in areas that traditional commercial cellular networks cannot reach.

To date, five remote barangays in Aurora province are benefiting from the VBTS-CoCoMoNets.

These sites, nestled in the Sierra Madre mountains facing the Pacific Ocean, are home to some members of the indigenous people of the province.

Two more CCNs are expected to be established by the end of the year.

VBTS-CoCoMoNets’ Project Leader Dr. Cedric Angelo Festin from UP College of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and Project Investigator Dr. Eric Brewer from UC Berkeley’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, together with their team, will receive a cash prize of US$3,500.

The VBTS-CoCoMoNets addresses the lack of mobile phone access by establishing Community Cellular Networks (CCNs) in rural sites in the Philippines.