We’re back from lunch and my dodgy wireless connection has righted itself (I have window periods of between 30 seconds and two minutes to post my blogs), and so I return to the blog.

I must admit, as soon as I heard “community-owned wireless Internet”, I had grand dreams and images of wireless Internet in areas that are currently disadvantaged – townships and rural areas – where it could potentially be put to the best use. However, despite the innovations made in the field, it seems to be a long-term goal.

Henk Kleynnans, the founder of Skyrove, is attempting to do what most of us could only dream of doing – cutting Telkom out of its Internet monopoly. Basically, using a wireless router plugged into your network (ADSL/iBurst), you can create your own WiFi hotspot and resell the Telkom connection to provide internet access to other people in your community. And, at the end of each month, if you are providing the source for the hotspot, you get paid. Score. Users can buy credits on a prepaid system, and off they go on your merry way.

At first, this didn’t sound legal at all – but apparently with the new Electronic Communications Act ratified in 2004, you can now self-provide your Internet – if you’re licensed, of course.

It makes sense. With a Telkom broadband connection, you can expect to pay about R500 a month, says Kleynnans. Skyrove offers slightly more expensive but prepaid Internet – so you can have broadband at your own terms. The idea behind this is that a system like Skyrove will spread virally – without the constraints placed on most subscribers by Telkom.

This is all well and good, but could it work in disadvantaged areas? In theory, it could – provided there is a Telkom access point and somebody willing to spring for the Telkom subscription. You could set up an access point at a central location and provide connections to schools, hospitals, community centres and so forth. In theory.

You’d still have to buy the equipment (and the credits, of course) which would turn out to be pretty expensive after a while. Unless you have a kind-hearted soul who would donate the whole lot, I reckon it’d be pretty much out of reach for most South Africans for a while.

But with the hoped for decrease in bandwidth costs with the fibre optic cables hitting our shores in the next couple years, hopefully “community-owned wireless Internet” will become more community-owned and more democratic, and less of a monopoly.