Tag: affordable access
A Game of Stones
In 2019, the World Bank estimated that it would cost US $100 billion to achieve broadband access for all in Africa. While efforts to understand the cost of connectivity investment are noble, they have the unfortunate side effect of making...
The 5G Fugazi
Mobile phones and mobile networks are a modern technological miracle that have transformed telecommunications. This is a non-controversial statement. In economically poor countries, mobile phones have effectively replaced legacy copper infrastructure to become the default national telephone network infrastructure. In...
Rethinking Affordable Access
Everyone needs affordable access to communication. Affordable access strategies that don’t target everyone end up magnifying the digital divide in a kind of Matthew effect: those with affordable phone/internet services have access to ever increasing education resources, opportunities, services, social...
The Internet Is U-Shaped
When we think about the problem of achieving affordable access to the Internet for all, the discussion often focuses on broadband targets. These targets are moving goalposts as infrastructure improves. Broadband used to be defined at 256Kbps, now it might be...
How to Think About Universal Access
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that any person in possession of a mobile phone must be in want of an Internet connection. Please allow that mangling of Jane Austen to exist as a placeholder for the assumption that everyone having affordable access...