Workshop Description

This workshop was designed to create a synergy between various stakeholders in a country where the availability of a sustainable and affordable last-mile internet access solution could contribute significantly to its development. The process of exploring the alternatives for this last-mile solution, and the identification and elimination of relevant barriers, could provide opportunities for new applications in the field of broadband data services.

Bangladesh was chosen as the host for this workshop because the country has a nationwide telecom backbone infrastructure, population density is high, and no part of the country is remote. At the same time there is strong government support for information and communication technology (ICT) applications throughout the country. We believed that some creative solutions, including affordable hardware, could create new opportunities for the delivery of distance learning, health care and agricultural extension services, among others, in Bangladesh. Such solutions could also provide easier e-government services, market access for farmers and better overall education and employment opportunities for the young. The workshop focused both on the hardware aspects of distributed internet access and the development of online applications.

We brought together experts from Bangladesh, the United States, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Nepal and India who can identify the necessary building blocks and discuss integrated solutions for making the Internet an effective tool for education, health care and agriculture extension delivery, and a service provider at the local level. It was expected that, the presentations and discussions at this workshop identified relevant technologies, opportunities for cooperation and collaboration among diverse stakeholders, and software solutions to facilitate the last-mile Internet access solution in Bangladesh and throughout the developing world.

The financial and material support provided by the US National Science Foundation, the UN Development Program, the Local Government Engineering Department of the Government of Bangladesh, the BRAC University, JOBS-USAID and Grameen Cyber Society wereinvaluable in making this workshop possible. And the Advanced Research Institute of Virginia Tech was very pleased receive wide support from so many private and public organizations nationally and internationally in hosting this workshop.