W4C
Access to information is a basic right for every citizen and Digital Empowerment Foundation works towards providing this access by connecting remote communities to the Internet through its Wireless for Communities initiative across more than 150 villages in India. Wireless for Communities or W4C aims to connect rural and remote locations of India.
W4C involves line-of-sight and low-cost Wi-Fi equipment, which utilise the unlicensed spectrum bands — 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz — to create community owned and community-operated wireless networks in rural and remote locations of India to democratise access and make it available to all. These community networks are created for knowledge sharing, content creation and dissemination of other information and issues relevant to the local context of each location. Women are trained to become engineers who maintain and manage these networks.
Principal Partners
Success Stories
Community Networks
Four women make low-cost sanitary napkins
Women in Tilonia have found a new love
Internet brings in a new era of fundraising
Conserving drinking water, offline and online
Evolution of communication on campus
A young girls has big aspirations
Supporting radio listeners, on air & on ground
Visual Stories
W4C Impact Story Barefoot College
Visit to Barefoot College Tilonia
I Love to Study & Play
Chanderi Film
Chanderi
Baank-e-Loom
Last Mile Connectivity
Baran “residents of jungle go WIFI”
Training Courses
WIRELESS TRAINING MANUAL
This chapter aims to provide brief knowledge to the reader about wireless networks. This unit discusses not only the commonly used IEEE802.11 standards but also the new broadband standard IEEE802.16 (WiMAX).
REFRESHER COURSE ON USING INTERNET
This short course on internet literacy is for anyone who knows the basics of the internet, has used a browser before for searching online content and has an active email account.
CERTIFICATE COURSE ON FUNDAMENTAL OF INTERNET
The training manual comprises of detailed introduction to internet web browsing, search engine understanding, websites, on-line communication media like email, chatting, web conferencing and social media.