Technological solution for the development of sustainable telecenters in rural and remote areas

The Government of Venezuela, through its National Telecommunication Commission, continues to develop and evaluate its “Access Points” (Telecenters) project; these telecenters provide telecommunication services and facilitate access to information and the use of computer resources with a social and collective integration vision. The telecenters are designed to promote inclusion and access of citizens to communication, information, and training. Access points are aimed at:

1. Promoting the use of information and communication technologies as development empowerment tools.

2. Meeting the needs of the communities and supporting the activities being developed for the population.

3. Extending telecommunication service networks to unattended areas so that they can be affordable.

4. Promoting the delivery of other services, such as fax, scanning, etc.

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, various platforms are being assessed and some solutions have been adopted to guarantee:

1. Low initial investment in the telecommunication and computer platform for the development of the telecenter.

2. Sustainability of the telecenter over time.

Description of the proposal

The telecenter’s technological platform makes it possible to integrate the various types of teleservices into one single network (multiservice network). In this network solution, a packet switching infrastructure (IP) is used to enable voice transmission. This proposal offers many advantages among which the following are noteworthy:

1. Optimization of broadband needed for connectivity.

2. Simplification of technology, integrating into one single network the services that previously required separate networks.

3. Scalability and modularity at a reasonable cost, making it possible to progressively increase the number of phone and data terminals.

The general topology and equipment comprising the technological platform for the development of sustainable telecenters are indicated below.

Figure 1. Technological platform for the telecenters

Computer resources

The operating system and applications in each one of the telecenter’s computer equipment rely on “free software”, because it is a viable, economically sustainable and socially fair alternative.

For the administration and control of telecenter services and resources, the National Telecommunications Commission has developed a system called the “Integral Management System,” and one of the main virtues of this system is that it can be adapted to any language by the translation of a language file. This system has also been developed on the basis of the “free software” philosophy.

Telecommunications solution

The telecenter network solution uses a packet switching infrastructure instead of the traditional circuit switching infrastructure. The internal solution of the telecenter for phone service is based on Voice over IP (VoIP), which uses an SIP as a signaling protocol between IP phones and the call processing device.

The Phone Call Processing is done by the telecenter service; this server has an Asterisk software installed, emulating a PBX switchboard and a hardware (FXO cards) enabling connection with phone service providers. The Asterisk PBX software using free software generates the useful data (Call Detail Record—CDR) of the phones over real time; these data are used by a telecenter and management system for the corresponding tariff-setting.

With the suitable hardware, use of the Asterisk PBX switchboard makes it possible to have a wide range of external solutions at affordable costs to provide phone service inside the telecenter. Examples of these external solutions are as follows:

1. The telecenter can be served by traditional phone lines (wireless fixed telephony), which can be connected to the server through FXS-type cards.

2. The telecenter can be served by wireless phone lines (wireless fixed telephony), which by means of telephone gateways (based on CDMA, GSM, etc.) can be connected to the server through FXS-type cards.

3. The telecenter can also be served through an IP link to connect the PBX switchboard with a softswitch or gatekeeper of the phone service provider.

For access to Internet, any type of connectivity solution available in the area where the telecenter is or shall be installed can be used. To enhance the experience of user navigation on Internet, a proxy-cache service has been installed in the server, enabling the efficient management of the use of the telecenter’s Internet access transmission rate.

Benefits of the Solution

1. Economic sustainability, thanks to the wide variety of connectivity solutions for telephony and Internet, with which the technology platform can operate.

2. Low initial investment owing to:

• Software license payment is not required.

• Minimum technical requirements of the equipment (cutting edge equipment is not required).

• The purchase of a specialized solution for the processing and tariff-setting of the calls in the telecenter is not required, because it uses the Asterisk software as PBX switchboard and the integral management system as an application for the setting of service tariffs.

3. Promotes technological independence.

CONATEL-Venezuela