(International Journal of Research and Reviews in Computer Science (IJRRCS), 2011-04) Simba, Fatuma; Trojer, Lena; Mwinyiwiwa, Bakari; Mvungi, Nerey; Mjema, Emannuel
Rural areas especially those of the developing
countries provide challenging environment to implement
communication infrastructure for data and Internet based services.
The main challenges are the high cost of network implementation
and lack of customer base, as rural areas are characterized by low
income, highly scattered and low population density. This situation
drives network operators to establish network infrastructures in
urban/city centers leaving rural areas as underserved community.
This paper surveys the available connectivity technologies with
potentials to offer broadband access network to rural areas. The
scope of this survey is on wireless access technologies, due to the
fact that they are efficient in terms of cost, timeof deployment and
network management for rural environment. We provide
comparison of the surveyed technologies in terms oftheir capacity
(data rates) and coverage. We also discuss the current deployment
of WiMAX and 3G technologies in Africa, which is a home to most
of the developing countries. The survey results indicate potential
broadband access technologies for rural areas of the developing
countries.