Deployment of WiFi for rural communities in Japan and ITU´s initiative for pilot projects

The wireless LAN technology known as WiFi (or wireless fidelity) which is the standard developed by the IEEE 802 Committee is now introduced by internet service providers or by the network operators in the metropolitan hectic areas of developed countries at so-called hotspots such as airports, hotels, cafes, railway stations, etc and facilitates to provide easy and low-cost, high-speed internet connections for the PC, PDA, mobile IP phone users. Implementation of these technologies for various applications including e-health and tele-education, etc, for rural telecommunication development in Japan and by ITU will be described in this paper. The global survey and analysis on the telecommunications environment and the needs of rural communities of the developing countries conducted by ITU will be briefly introduced. The future perspective for the development of rural communications including the applications of e-health care will also be discussed.