Wireless Macedonia
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has underwritten a project called ‘Macedonia Connects’ which has made the Republic of Macedonia the first all broadband wireless country its size or larger in the world. The Macedonia Connects Project is managed by the Academy for Educational Development (AED)
USAID’s Macedonia Connects is a three-year activity which is providing Broadband Internet Connectivity to almost 550 elementary and secondary schools, research institutes, universities and dorms throughout the Republic of Macedonia. Macedonia Connects work has resulted in Macedonia’s becoming the first all-wireless internet country in the world.
Macedonia's overall development requires improved Internet access, particularly affordable broadband Internet for businesses, schools, individuals as well as local government units. The latest surveys show that the Internet penetration in Macedonia is 8%, which shows a lag behind other countries in Eastern Europe.
By making broadband internet connectivity available at a lower cost this project will increase the number of Internet users as well as foster the integration of ICT in spheres crucial for the development of the country. These services are being delivered by On.Net, a local provider procured through a competitive and transparent process.
Source: http://www.usaid.org.mk
Technology
The deployed technology is a combination of WiFi and Motorola’s Canopy technology. The Canopy technology has been chosen as the wireless backhaul solution for the network and WiFi for the access part.
The development until now
Different phases of development have been outlined in www.dot-com-alliance.org. An overview is given in the following.
January-March 2005
The first three months of 2005 were very busy for Macedonia Connects marked by the official hiring of several employees, the receipt of four responses to the Macedonia Connects RFP and the selection of a review panel.
July-September 2005
- On August 15th, On.net completed the wireless backbone which put in place the final piece of architecture connecting all of the 460 schools.
- September 14th marked the “lighting” up of two 155mb Internet connections between On.net and Serbian Telecom completing the overall picture for national connectivity.
- Macedonia Connects certified the installation of School connectivity through the random on-site review of 84 schools located throughout Macedonia.
- On.net completed the installation of all 460 prior to the end of September. There were approximately 12 sites which were very difficult to complete due to insurgent activities by the Kosovo Liberation Army. Those activities ended in mid-September and the schools were connected soon thereafter.
October-December 2005
Macedonia Connects was highlighted by the BBC programme Click Online and received a lot of press attention during the last few months of 2005.
- In November the project entered into a new contract with On.net to provide connectivity to an additional 50 sites. The majority of these sites are non- profit sites which were suggested by various Donor nation projects within Macedonia. Twenty-four of these sites were connected prior to the end of the year.
- HELPDESK Activities: The E-Schools project did not build in a support mechanism to for the 461 schools which received the Chinese computer donation. The support was supposed to come from the Ministry of Education and Science but unfortunately that support never materialized. As a stop gap measure Macedonia Connects took on a limited role in accepting, documenting and reporting the needs of the schools which were experiencing technical support needs. From October 1st, 2005 through the 31st of December 2005 the project provided phone support to the schools and worked with the other vendors to manage the response to these calls.
- Outreach to other NGO’s: Macedonia Connects was asked to work with the other legacy projects which also placed computers into various schools throughout Macedonia but were not attached to the Internet. The project is still actively helping these projects accomplish the goal of connectivity.
Future development
The above description is about the development in the framework of USAID grant. However, the On.Net has expanded the network coverage to the residential areas with the aim of building a commercial business. In about 4 month in late 2005 the network was offered free of charge to anybody who had a WiFi enabled terminal. This was a test period and today the free offer is closed done and the On.Net is beginning to offer prepaid cards for accessing the network.
Another operator, Neotel (part of Neocom), is also building a wireless network in the country. Neotels network is based on WiMAX and they offer both Internet connectivity and VoIP services.