Written by Gareth van Zyl | From IT Web Africa

Over a year since raising more than $170,000 on crowdfunding website Kickstarter, BRCK internet devices are ready to be shipped to 45 countries around the world.

The BRCK, a product of Nairobi crowdsourcing organisation Ushahidi, is designed to keep people connected online even when the lights go out or 3G signals drop.

Dubbed the “backup generator of the internet”, features of the device include the ability to plug a SIM card into it, or connect to wired and wireless ethernet connections.

And after a period of testing and development, the first batch of 800 units of the device are planned to be shipped across the globe on July 17.

Erik Hersman, CEO of BRCK, has told ITWeb Africa that the device is planned to cost $199, excluding shipping costs.
“We’ll have our online store up and available for people to make orders for the next batch (about 3-4 weeks away) this week,” Hersman told ITWeb Africa.

It has been a long journey developing the device, as delays hit the project last year amid challenges in obtaining key parts.
Even before obtaining funding for the BRCK on Kickstarter, Hersman told ITWeb Africa his team also conducted iterations for around 18 months on a prototype device.

“When you go to production though, that’s a whole different beast, and we ended up spending a year from our Kickstarter until today going through more levels of prototypes before we finalised on our production-level hardware back in February,” Hersman said.

Read more at IT Web Africa