After the outbreak of New Coronary Pneumonia, Internet access has become crucial.
With the video chat application replacing face-to-face interaction to a large extent, face-to-face services and enterprises gradually retreat to screen security. For those who cannot reliably access the Internet, daily life becomes difficult to understand.
The reality of this change made a graduate student at the University of Washington think.
Esther Jang spent time building a mobile tower in the Philippines to provide Internet access in remote areas. She wondered why not try the same method in underserved areas of Seattle?
“It really started because of the pandemic,” Jang said. “All of a sudden, people realized that Internet access is like a public utility – people can’t get rid of it.”
Esther Jang helped establish the network infrastructure as part of the SCN project.
A report in Seattle in 2018 found that 88% of Seattle residents have fixed broadband Internet access at home. But Zhang said that research on this topic usually raises more questions than answers. For example, who has a home and what is reliable Internet access? What happens if someone misses the monthly payment – especially during the high economic uncertainty of the pandemic?
“All of these issues have surfaced somewhat,” she said.
Zhang Chengze hopes to establish a non-profit organization similar to the New York network, relying on volunteers to provide Internet access through the New York Tower. She spoke with Kurtis Heimerl, co director of the Information and Communication Technology for Development Laboratory at the University of Washington. Application of ICTD laboratory research technology in poverty alleviation.
“Esther said, ‘I want to do everything we do in the Philippines, but I want to do it in Seattle,'” Hemel recalled.
They planned a plan to develop into the Seattle Community Network, an Internet service provider supported by volunteers and partners. It is funded by Seattle University of Science and Technology for the Public Interest
Network, National Science Foundation and individual donors.
Building collaborative networks is not without obstacles. One of the most important is the proliferation of hills and buildings in Seattle.
Jang said that Seattle’s urban terrain, carved from ancient glaciers and skyscrapers, is one of the biggest enemies of cellular wireless. In short, things tend to get in the way. Tall buildings may block signals, while hills or valleys may mean loss of coverage.
Even so, the Seattle Community Network currently operates six LTE based towers in the Seattle area, one of which is located at Franklin High School and the seventh in Tacoma. The coverage of each tower ranges from blocks to miles, depending on the location.
Although the project continues to find new sites for the tower to expand its coverage, the current focus is to establish a network of volunteers and partners to help educate potential users on how to obtain free services.
“It’s hard for people to know,” Zhang said. “You can disclose information on Facebook, but if they are not on the Internet, they are unlikely to see it.”
So far, the strategy has been to work with community organizations, including the King County Library System, the Black Brilliance project and the Seattle Filipino community, which help disseminate information.
“Our model is actually to work with a large number of partner organizations and support them to provide connectivity,” Hemel said.
He added: “In the final analysis, the core idea is to operate a cellular network and really create infrastructure like T-Mobile and Verizon. Put this idea into practice at the level of these organizations, which have the social ability to contact these people, but no technical ability.”
The Seattle Community Network is currently looking for individual volunteers with community building, teaching and technology related skills, as well as people with practical experience in building items and wiring electronic equipment.
“We definitely need the most helpful people with technical experience, network and IT, but we also need people who like to build things,” said Jang. “Even those who have installed wires at home, have some electrical skills, or are direct software engineers.”
She said that building a community around all people’s Internet access is one of the most valuable aspects of the project. She hopes to find more like-minded people who can contribute their time and skills to the cause.
“To be honest, I think the most valuable thing about this project is people,” Zhang said.