Dabba is a South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n company that is pioneering the establishment of village telco

Village telco

A Village telco is a community based telephone network. It is based on a suite of open source applications that enable entrepreneurs to set up and operate a telephone service in a specific area or supporting the needs of a specific community ....

s. It uses wireless technology to provide voice and data services to under-serviced areas. Dabba has developed a distributed community based ownership model that encourages local entrepreneurs to provide telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 services not served by fixed line telcos at affordable prices.

Dabba was founded by Rael Lissoos in 2004. He uses reprogrammed Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

 routers as base stations, and open source software to build the components of a telecommunications network

Telecommunications network

A telecommunications network is a collection of terminals, links and nodes which connect together to enable telecommunication between users of the terminals. Networks may use circuit switching or message switching. Each terminal in the network must have a unique address so messages or connections...

. Cheap Wi-Fi handsets are used to make calls. Dabba offers free calls in the area covered by the local network, and calls to 'phones on the national networks using pay-as-you-go cards.

The first pilot network is in operation in Orange Farm, Gauteng

Orange Farm, Gauteng

Orange Farm is a township located approximately 45 km from Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is the largest informal settlement in South Africa, with most estimates giving a population of 1 million people. Additionally, it is one of the youngest, with the original inhabitants;...

, a township near Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

. In July 2008, Rael was recognised as the Social Entrepreneur of the Year at the Berlin Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. He says "Wireless networks have traditionally been created top-down; we want to do it bottom-up".