Pilot Studies: Ground-Breaking insights by Ericsson to Empower Local Rural Communities

A three-month needs assessment, feasibility and impact (NAFI) study conducted by doctors from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of UNIMAS, and The Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics (CoERI) of UNIMAS found that the Mobile Innovation Village (MIV) model by Ericsson Malaysia successfully enabled empowerment of the local rural community in Kampung Serasot of the Bau District in Sarawak. The study, conducted among 90 households of the mainly Bidayuh agricultural community, focused on three areas, namely: Learning and Education; Remote Health Monitoring; and Group Communications (mobile IPbased communications).

The MIV was conceptualized with the goal to enrich people’s lives through the use of mobile and communications technologies. Inspired by the Millennium Village projects under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the Millennium Village initiative has been deployed in many regions, showcasing and piloting a number of new mobile health care and education services.Janne Laitala, President of Ericsson Malaysia & Sri Lanka, said: “Thanks to the impact study conducted by UNIMAS as part of this project, we are able to assess ICT applications that can benefit rural communities. This way, we can improve services for replication in other remote areas, and replicate similar projects with corporate partners and Malaysian government agencies to make broadband, computing, communications and healthcare services available, accessible and affordable to all.”

The UNIMAS study found that only 11% of the participants had used the Internet before, with 50% having had a family member who has used the Internet before. The remaining 39% had only heard of the Internet prior to the study. However, the students and teachers participating in the study were receptive and positive that Internet access would be beneficial, with 100% of students interested to continue with the eLearning System, and teachers who felt that the system would help bridge the rural-urban gap.

The educational content was made accessible via Ericsson’s PC as a Service (PCaaS) cloud- computing solution, using a tablet PC linked to a mobile-broadband network. The tablet PC is locally designed by MIMOS, an agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and manufactured by i-Solutions and Computing Sdn Bhd. Ericsson is working closely with various local agencies and companies to collaborate and augment their solutions.

Under Remote Health Monitoring, MIV enabled people to have their health monitored remotely by doctors using Ericsson’s mobile health solution. Patients were able to send off their weight and blood-pressure readings as well as electrocardiograms (ECGs) for analysis and management, thus saving them from having to travel for hours to the nearest city to get to a doctor – in the past five years, 55% of the participating respondents had sought medical attention for malaria and another 27% for dengue, with 42% making their way to a public clinic and 40% seeking attention at a government hospital.

Residents, equipped with 3G smartphones to enable greater use, also found Group Communication a useful and cost effective tool. One of the applications available to them was Ericsson’s Group-Radio, which offers managed group communication as a cloud service. The service included functionalities such as Push-To-Talk (PTT) in the community.

The study, in collaboration with local government agencies and a leading telecommunications service provider, helped give insights on how mobile data and Village WIFI services are used and how they can become more affordable in the future. Using these insights, the MIV model can be improved and replicated for use in other remote areas, in line with Ericsson’s global vision of a Networked Society where a connected world is just the beginning.