TNO consortium looks into satellite communication for developing countries

The project, which is sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA), has to deliver a blue print by the end of 2009 describing the criteria that have to be met to successfully use satellite communications. This blue print, or reference model, will not only consider the human factor – the capacity that is needed to successfully operate satellite technology – but also the financial and technical aspects of satellite communications as well.

TNO, which is taking the lead in this research project, uses the expertise of Avanti Communications, a private sector company specializing in telecommunications for the development of technical and financial criteria. Over the years, Avanti Communications has gained a lot of experience in developing financial models to make the use of satellite communications sustainable. Both IICD and ActNow, an Italian umbrella organization representing NGOs in both the North and the South in the field of civil society, will bring in their own experiences from projects that already use satellite communications. One of the projects that will be looked into is a project of the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB) which is using satellite communications to implement a Health Management Information System (HMIS).

To test the reference model developed by the four partners, TNO will collaborate with local people from a teleradiology project in Mali that is being supported by IICD. The teleradiology project connects five regional hospitals in Mali with the academic hospital in Bamako, Point GP, through the Internet. This enables specialist doctors at the hospital in Bamako to provide colleagues at the regional hospitals with an expert diagnose for their patients and to advise them on the right course of treatment for complicated medical cases. The project provides a solution for the shortage of medical specialists, especially radiologists, in rural hospitals by enabling the medical staff who work there to send and receive x-ray scans and diagnoses over the Internet. Although the project has proven to be a success, connectivity is still a challenge in the rural areas of Mali. Using satellite communication would certainly be an improvement on the current dial-up connection. The reference model will help them to see if, and how, this can be applied in an effective and sustainable way.

For IICD, the added value of collaborating with a well-known and respected research institute like TNO lies in the fact that their research can help to further improve the implementation of certain technical solutions such as satellite communication. Deem Vermeulen, Team Leader International Programmes at IICD and one of the staff members involved in the project: “Although we have more then ten years of experience of working together with local partners on the ground to create practical and sustainable solutions, its is becoming increasingly important to carry out research into the impact of certain solutions, especially with regard to connectivity solutions. Our own Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) system is very valuable in terms of measuring the impact of projects and collecting lessons learned, but with the expertise of TNO we can take this a step further and use the experiences from the field to develop a model that will show us how to apply certain technologies, in this case satellite communication, in an effective and sustainable way. We and our partners in the developing countries will directly benefit from this research.”

The reference model will be delivered by the end of 2009. TNO and IICD are currently investigating if and how they can strengthen each other’s activities in the field of ICT and development.