Information Infrastructure for Developing Countries

Jon M. Peha
Professor of EPP and ECE, and Associate Director of the Center for Wireless Broadband Networking
Carnegie Mellon University
www.ece.cmu.edu/~peha

The best way to bring broadband Internet to a developing country canbe quite different from the best way to bring broadband Internet to a country like the U.S. The applications that make effective use of broadband can also be quite different. In this research, we are exploring technical approaches that might be more cost-effective in the context of developing countries. One examples is a form of wireless technology known as "TV white space devices," because these devices operate in TV spectrum in a way that does not cause harmful interference with TV. Although this technology was first developed for the U.S., and is still in the early stages there, this technology may hold great promise for areas that do not yet have substanital broadband build-outs, as is common in many developing countries. This project includes both purely technical resesarch and policy research.