Fez Wireless Metropolitan Area Network: International Development Research Centre

Since 2004, IDRC's Acacia program initiative (Communities and the Information Society in Africa) has financed two projects in electronic local government services in Fez, Morocco. Project 101980 supported computerization of civil status registries in the city. Project 104053 is in the process of replicating the first project on a larger scale. Both of these experiences have been successful in terms of achievement on the ground, delivery of services to citizens, and national and international recognition.

This grant will equip Fez with an wireless network connecting the offices of the civil registry, governorate and court. A public access will be installed for citizens to communicate electronically with the administration. The project will also provide researchers and municipal actors with training in wireless infrastructure so that they can manage the network themselves.

The research objectives will be of two kinds. At the technological level, they will focus on the type of network, technologies involved, service performance and resources required. At the sociopolitical level, they will endeavor to demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of a municipal network and provide decision-makers with the necessary knowledge on the potential of wireless technology in the municipal context.

The proposed Fez Wireless Project aims to build and succeed a high capacity wireless communications infrastructure in a Moroccan real life setting (specifically Moroccan local government) so that it facilitates wireless demonstration effects. It intends to explore in such a setting the range of opportunities enabled and generated with developing and deploying a functioning high capacity wireless communications infrastructure. It aims also to document, assess, and analyze the findings of the proposed wireless research project. The findings will be communicated and disseminated to inform relevant actors/audiences to foster awareness raising and processes of consensus building with regards to wireless related development opportunities in Morocco and other developing countries.

- Design and build a scalable wireless network interconnecting ten selected government sites in the city of Fez that meet government communication requirements, and a community-based approach;

- Compare two wireless technologies (WiFi and WiMax) and a wired technology (Fiber) in a context of building a municipality network;

- Study and compare different alternatives for wireless wide area networks that
- Introduce real time services in the wireless infrastructure such as VoIP, and
- Evaluate the solution adopted.

- Explore the interoperability challenges that a wide wireless city network infrastructure presents;

- Design and implement one public wireless hotspot with a captive portal to provide services to citizens;

- Study the feasibility and the conditions of success of such a metropolitan wireless network;

- Monitor and analyze the changes and outcomes of this network on local administration and services;

- Monitor and analyze the impacts of the wireless network on citizens in terms of access to services and interactions with the local administration;

- Monitor and analyze the influence introduced by this network on decision makers in local and regional administration;

- Study the impacts of this project in regulation area in Morocco;

- Disseminate regularly the projects findings in scientific journals, local medias and on the project web site; and

- Elaborate a roadmap to facilitate processes of replicating the experience in other local governments in Morocco.