Electricity
In many rural areas, electric supply may be restricted to only six or eight hours a day. When electrical power is available, its voltage and frequency may vary far outside the acceptable limits of most hardware.
Finally, there is often no earthing provided. For most rural ICT projects, battery back-ups and Universal Power Supply (UPS) are mandatory in addition to circuit breakers and voltage stabilizers.

Telephony or its equivalent
Landline telephones are still not available in many villages in India. Where they do exist they may be down for weeks at a time, and there may be other kinds of incompatibilities, which prevent data transfer. But several solutions are possible to circumvent low tele-density in rural areas like Very Small Aperture Terminals (V-SATs) and Optical-Fiber Cable (OFC) routes.

Network Connectivity
Internet subscription is not always available in rural and underdeveloped sections. Poor telephony ensures that modem speeds are often restricted to 28.8 kbps or slower. While WLL technologies are able to provide simultaneous and continuous voice and data connectivity in local areas, computer kiosks in villages can also be designed so as to require only limited connectivity.

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* Contributed by: -
Shruti Rustagi,
Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.