The rural communities Malawi will now have technology within reach, thanks to White Spaces in the TV UHF Band, a television white spaces (TVWS) pilot project which is being run by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) and the University of Malawi.
For this project to be successful, the Minister of Information and Civic Education, Brown Mpinganjira said, there is need for all players in the ICT to work together with an aim of achieving desired results.
“This project is a realization of the commitment by the government of Malawi to promote universal access to ICT services by creating an environment that is conducive for joint ventures between the public and private sector through arrangements such as Public Private Partnership,” he said.
This project is being piloted at St. Marys Secondary school, Malawi Defence Force Airwing, Pirimiti Rural Hospital and the Geological Survey Department.
“This programme will enable a clinical officer at Pirimiti Health Centre to have access to medical diagnosis material from college of medicine in Blantyre. A student at St Mary’s Secondary School will have access to reference material for her assignment from an online library,” said MACRA Board chair, Martha Kwataine.
Similiar TVWS pilot schemes have already begun in Kenya, South Africa, the UK and the US.