Connecting The Next Billion
Making accessible, affordable internet a reality
While Google and others work to upgrade internet users in the United States with faster, more reliable technology, a number of organizations (including Google) are working on making the internet accessible and affordable across the rest of the world. Recent initiatives such as Internet.org and Project Loon seek to empower the world’s population with the same access to tools and information that helped facilitate the very success of their founding members, including Facebook and Google.
The world economy is going through a massive transition right now. The knowledge economy is the future. By bringing everyone online, we’ll not only improve billions of lives, but we’ll also improve our own as we benefit from the ideas and productivity they contribute to the world.
Giving everyone the opportunity to connect is the foundation for enabling the knowledge economy. It is not the only thing we need to do, but it’s a fundamental and necessary step. — Mark Zuckerberg
Only 1 out of every 3 people can go online
A wide gap between the developed and developing countries currently exists. In the United States alone, 81% of the population has access to the internet — and the U.S. doesn’t even lead the pack (we actually rank #26). European countries including Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands all boast over 90% connectedness numbers. While less than one third of people in developing countries have internet access (30.7%), developed countries average almost 80% connectedness rates (76.8%).
Despite what some may believe, connecting the next billion isn’t about Facebook users. Before you completely discredit Mark Zuckerberg, however, it’s important to point out that he has recently emerged as a pioneer of one of several initiatives looking to close the gap in cost and technology, among other factors, for the roughly 2/3 of the world’s population that still isn’t ‘connected.’ In addition to Facebook, you can count Ericsson, MediaTek, Opera, Samsung, Nokia and Qualcomm among Internet.org’s founding partners.
When I was getting started with Facebook, I could build it because I had access to the internet and a few basic tools. If we can get to a point where everyone has access to those same tools, then everyone is going to be able to benefit from the innovation, ideas and hard work of billions of people around the world. — Mark Zuckerberg
The internet is the backbone of the knowledge economy
In order to make the transition from an industrial economy — where success is sometimes skewed toward the wealthy due to their access to resources — to the knowledge economy, we must provide everyone with access to the same tools and resources. I wholeheartedly agree with Zuckerberg in that this will enable an entirely new generation of thinkers, technologists and entrepreneurs who can learn, grow and help solve the world’s problems like never before.
Zuckerberg’s plan essentially boils down to the following imperatives:
- Making internet access affordable by making it more efficient
to deliver data - Using less data by improving the efficiency of the apps
and experiences we use - Helping businesses drive internet access by developing a new
model to get people online
Zuckerberg’s plan calls for a 10x improvement in each of the first two areas in order to make the strategy economically reasonable. Even once the technological achievements allow the economics of this solution to work, we still need to make it profitable for phone makers and mobile operators. Essentially, we need to align the incentives of all parties involved so that investments in the technology and infrastructure that will allow this to grow continue to take place.
We believe it’s possible to sustainably provide free access to basic internet services in a way that enables everyone with a phone to get on the internet and join the knowledge economy while also enabling the industry to continue growing profits and building out this infrastructure.
Most recently, Zuckerberg created quite the buzz when reports surfaced that Facebook was in talks to purchase drone-maker Titan Aerospace. These these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) would be used to provide internet access in areas that aren’t currently equipped for the technology.
Loon for All
Unveiled in 2013, Project Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters.
While Zuckerberg, Facebook and the Internet.org cohort seek to bridge the gap between what current technology allows and the economics required to create a new working model, some are looking for answers in the stratosphere. Google [x] — the semi-secret division of Google always unafraid to take risks and flex their R&D muscle — is seeking to “create a ring of balloons that fly around the globe on the stratospheric winds and provide Internet access to the earth below.”
Though Project Loon may seem farfetched to some — looking at you Bill Gates — Google has already launched its first pilot, successfully beaming internet to a small group of pilot testers, and hopes to expand the pilot even further this year.
The massive, inflatable balloons are launched 20km (12 miles) above the earth’s surface, and use algorithms to move into various layers of wind that will carry them in the direction they need to go — eventually forming one large communications network. Each balloon can provide internet access to an area up to 40km (24 miles) in diameter at speeds comparable to 3G.
Assuming the average 3G connection provides speeds around 200 kbps, and the average movie is 800 megabytes, it would take about 9 hours to download a full movie at those speeds.
Clearly there can and will be further improvements in the technology to improve speeds, and movies may not be the primary application for Project Loon, but it’s just one example to demonstrate the limitations in speed with the technology they are currently testing. Limitations in the technology aren’t the only obstacle to closing the gap, however, significant changes in policy are also required, as Zuckerberg highlighted in his research, in order to make the economics work.
The Policy Problem
While some work to reduce and eliminate the technological barriers that prevent us from connecting the rest of the world, other organizations have emerged with the focus on reforming and setting policies and practices that will create the necessary conditions to make the economics work.
The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) is a self-described “global coalition committed to driving down the cost of internet access in less developed countries, with a focus on policy and regulatory reform.”
A4AI will drive policy change by seeking to create the conditions for open, competitive and innovative broadband markets.
Facebook and Google are part of the initiative as well, however, as well as Microsoft and Yahoo. The Alliance is managed by the World Wide Web Foundation, and can claim Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, among its members. The membership of virtually all of the major tech giants clearly indicates the desperate need for changes in policy that empower the individual and protect against “quasi-monopolies and regressive policies.” Bringing this many players together will hopefully carry enough weight to reduce prohibitively expensive internet costs and pave the way towards a more connected world.
What We’re Working Towards
Impact of the Internet in Africa, a recent report from Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a niche management consulting firm, finds that “the Internet brings top-line growth and bottom-line improvement to SMEs.”
More than 80% of SME owners expect that the Internet will help them grow their business, and 70% of those expect to hire new employees as a result.
The economic impact would be dramatic, and it’s clear that in the knowledge economy in which we’re living, giving more people access to consume information and create new tools can only serve to greatly benefit society as a whole. Despite the obvious limitations and obstacles I’ve been able to identify in technology and policy, the upside is just too great to ignore.
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