We’re so accustomed to broadband, we take it for granted. As public wifi nodes spread ever further across the nation’s railway network and the high street’s coffee shops, we grow more dependent on it.
Projects like FrontlineSMS are a useful reminder that simpler technology can be used to achieve equally great things – in some cases, things that are far more impressive than simply allowing bored commuters to update their Facebook profiles.
FrontlineSMS is an ingenious technology, developed in the UK but used most in remote areas where broadband connections – indeed, internet connections of any sort – are hard to come by.
It does this by patching a standard computer into the mobile phone network. Mobile telephony is big business even in the world’s poorest countries, which have found mobile networks easier, cheaper and faster to build than traditional landline ones.
FrontlineSMS turns even quite humble computers into mini messaging hubs. They can “broadcast” messages to many people via the local mobile network, then manage the collection and collation of replies. It’s cheap, easy to set up, and provides connectivity for many people in places where there’s no connectivity at all. It’s a fantastic idea, and one that’s revolutionising some aspects of life in rural parts of the world’s poorest countries.
It’s also been a hit, winning awards such as National Geographic’s Emerging Explorer Award and the “Equality” prize in the Silicon Valley-based Tech Awards.
For more background on how it all works, I recommend you put aside 30 minutes to listen to this episode of the BBC’s Digital Planet podcast, in which FrontlineSMS founder Ken Banks explains the system and why it’s so useful.
