MAGNOLIA: a robust, low-cost, shared line rural telephone system

Rural communities, especially those in third world and developing countries, face telecommunications problems such as lack of money, low traffic densities (affecting economic viability), high exposure to lightning, poor or nonexistent infrastructure, etc. There is therefore a need for a simple-to-operate, robust, low-cost, maintainable telecommunication system, allowing access to the rest of the world. The MAGNOLIA system described is a low-cost, shared line (or channel), manual or automatic telephone system. It uses modern technology to implement a robust, in-band signalling system and incorporates features which largely overcome problems traditionally associated with shared line systems. It can operate over any medium capable of transmitting speech, such as radio or PCM. It allows the sharing of costs of the available transmission medium. The author describes the system and its applications