The purposes of the MoU are to co-operate in research at LinkNet sites; to create broad awareness of the needs for internet access in rural Africa; to strive for development and publication of open source solutions for deployment in Africa; to develop a centre of experience on rural information and communications technology (ICT) development and training in Zambia; and to develop research projects to gain a better understanding of realities in rural Africa.

The MoU follows a hands-on training workshop with LinkNet hosted at the Meraka Institute during June 2007 to share knowledge on the planning and deployment of a wireless mesh network. The institute released a do-it-yourself mesh guide providing step-by-step instructions to assist the LinkNet team, who also visited the Peebles Valley community in Mpumalanga where the institute helped establish a mesh network in 2005.

Mesh networking provides many benefits to rural communities that wish to become connected, including reliable, easy to deploy infrastructure at a significantly lower cost than current telecommunication alternatives. Members of these communities can install and operate their own networks.

Within one week after the workshop, the LinkNet team was able to set up a mesh network in the rural settlement of Macha in Zambia's Southern Province, providing wireless internet connectivity to ten buildings of the local hospital. Implementation challenges experienced were resolved between LinkNet and the Meraka Institute and lead to improvements in the mesh guide.