Project status: closed

Country: India

Partner: Servelots

Impact goal: 200-300 people

About the project

Sathgatta and tiny hamlets around a small town called Kolala are in a peculiar situation of being in a low lying area for the phone signals. There is decent internet connection and phone signals in the nearby towns. Most students who can afford it end up staying in a nearby city for education. Servelots work is to set up a tiny community network with a couple of computers for school needs and for people to access the Internet from their phones. This network will have a gateway to the internet by setting up long distance wireless routers from a source point 4 kilometers away.

Results

The Community-Owned Wireless Mesh Network in Sathagatta, Karnataka, has been successfully deployed after two years of development and testing. Implemented by Janastu with support from 48percent.org and APNIC, the project brings reliable, community-run internet connectivity to a remote village where no traditional ISP services exist and mobile coverage is extremely limited.

Using a BSNL fibre connection from a nearby Panchayat office, the team established a long-distance wireless link to a hilltop and extended coverage into the village through a four-node mesh network running on OpenWrt. Because of frequent grid power outages, all nodes now operate fully on solar power with battery backup, ensuring stable, year-round connectivity.

A key achievement of the project is its strong community ownership. A local resident was trained in installation, troubleshooting, solar maintenance, antenna alignment, and network monitoring, enabling the village to manage the system independently and sustainably.

With the network now active, households in Sathagatta have access to reliable internet for the first time. Residents can make internet calls, students can access online learning materials, youth can explore digital skill development, and families can access government services and digital documents without leaving the village. Connectivity has significantly reduced digital isolation and opened up new educational and livelihood opportunities.

The deployment faced challenges, including difficult terrain, power instability, and persistent wildlife interference. These issues were addressed through careful link planning, a full transition to solar power, and the creation of custom weather- and animal-proof enclosures using locally available materials. The team intentionally invested time in developing a system that the community could repair and maintain on its own, resulting in a slower but far more sustainable deployment.

Today, Sathagatta has a resilient, community-operated digital infrastructure that can serve as a model for other remote and underserved regions seeking affordable and locally manageable connectivity solutions.

About the partner

Servelots was founded by a group of computer scientists nearby Bangalore, India. They wanted a highly cost effective software for communities to manage community knowledge. Servelots has, together with Janatsu - their non-profit - worked on WiFi mesh networking. These mesh networks have since been provided to low-literate communities, tribal and remote areas as well as in slums. Servelots have also been working with rural schools and villages using the Aspiration networking devices to provide connectivity.

Visit their website here to learn more about them.