VoIP on a bike | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-07-19 | By Ephraim Schwartz

VoIP on a bike | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-07-19 | By Ephraim Schwartz

VoIP on a bike A bicycle-powered, Linux-based VoIP system brings developing communities into the 21st century

Reality Check, By Ephraim Schwartz July 19, 2005

A bicycle-powered, Linux-based VoIP system: not your usual high-tech architecture. But what if you were one of the more than 1 billion people living without electricity? No power, no phone.

The mission of Inveneo, a nonprofit group of inveterate high-tech adventurers, is to bring developing communities that never reached a 20th century level of infrastructure into the 21st century. Its bicycle-powered system brings not just VoIP but also e-mail and Web browsing to remote areas, using a combination of Linux and the Asterisk (Overview, Articles, Company) open source PBX.

Inveneo puts everything together with off-the-shelf hardware that is low-cost, easily replaced, and — it is hoped — easy to troubleshoot and fix. It uses Wi-Fi networking to route traffic to a central hub with existing phone infrastructure, with a range as far as 100 miles.