Village Telcom OnePager

What is the Village Telco
The Village Telco is the cheapest, most robust, do-it-yourself, Open Source, wireless telephone company toolkit in the world. Central to the Village Telco is the Mesh Potato; a rugged yet inexpensive device for connecting ordinary telephones to meshed WiFi networks. Connect a bunch of Mesh Potatoes together and you have an instant cloud of telephony in which any Mesh Potato can call another. Connect your Mesh Potato cloud to the Village Telco server and you have a billing and management system for the network as well as the potential to interconnect with other telephone and Internet networks. In short, the Village Telco is an affordable telephone and Internet network tailor-made for small entrepreneurs to offer local value.

Connect In versus Connect Out
Unlike Internet networks, telephone companies are still modeled on 20th century centrally-controlled networks which makes it hard for them to be fully responsive and agile. Rather than wait for telephone companies to come to you, the Village Telco allows for telephone networks to emerge where there is demand.

Local is Powerful
In the developing world, the majority of mobile phone calls are made on the same cell tower. The Village Telco offers the potential for the local entrepreneur to deliver significant value by enabling local telephone calling at a fraction of the cost of mobile infrastructure.

No Spectrum License Required
Gaining access to wireless spectrum in order to establish a network can be challenging in markets that are often dominated by incumbent telephone companies. The Village Telco uses unlicensed spectrum to avoid expensive spectrum license fees and to avoid the potentially insurmountable barrier of access to licensed spectrum.

Freedom to Innovate
Every aspect of the Village Telco from server to end-user is open to tinker with, to adapt, innovate, and improve. A thriving development community ensures that the Village Telco is always evolving and improving.

Rapid Deployment
A Village Telco can be set up in a matter of hours making an ideal solution for rapid deployments at outdoor events or disaster relief services.

Enable Small Entrepreneurs
Rather than channel wealth through one large telephone company, the Village Telco creates the opportunity for local entrepreneurs to generate wealth that stays in the community.