[kictanet] Here’s the Real Way to Get Internet to the Next 4 Billion People

[Mwendwa Kivuva]

On 21 September 2015 at 11:09, Brian Munyao Longwe via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> We established a social enterprise that is using internet technologies to
> improve livelihoods for communities in this post-conflict regions. This is
> mainly through making high speed broadband available to rural communities
> at low cost. So far we have been able to establish points-of-presence in
> the towns of Gulu, Lira, Soroti and Mbale - NGOs, corporates and
> individuals alike have been flocking to take up the broadband services
> after years of poor quality and expensive services from the mobile
> operators who sell mainly data bundles that have poor performance. We ride
> on Uganda's national optical fiber network (owned by the ministry of ICT's
> National IT Authority - NITA-U). and from Kampala interconnect with a
> variety of bulk providers (Seacom, Liquid Telecom, Simbanet, BCS) who are
> connected to submarine networks via Mombasa. Our service approach has
> greatly challenged the internet services paradigm and scored greatly with
> our subscribers, many of whom enjoy better services in these rural towns
> than their colleagues/counterparts in the capital Kampala.
>

Thank you very much Brian for the great work. This is quite interesting.
There is an IGF 2015 track called "Policy Options for Connecting the Next
Billion". I am not sure if you have heard about it.

The short writeup of the same reads like this: "Technological advancement
in connectivity expanded broadband access and mobile penetration in recent
years. Three billion people were connected to the Internet by the end of
2014. In spite of the progress achieved, more effort is necessary in order
to connect the next billion and to address the digital divide. The
identification of strategies to improve connectivity is timely due to the
ongoing process of reviewing the outcomes of the World Summit of the
Information Society (WSIS+10) and the discussion of the post-2015
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Collaboration between governmental
and non-governmental actors is key to meet this challenge and the
mutistakeholder nature of the IGF makes it a privileged space for
discussion. "

What next: Your implementation is great and can form a great policy option
for the IGF. We hope you are willing to contribute on the same. Local or
regional IGF initiatives are encouraged to contribute on how "we can
connect the next billion to the Internet". Here is the form created by the
IGF secretariat to collect feedback. We can then have it presented at the
global IGF in Brazil later in November.
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/policy-options-for-connection-the-next-billion/contributions

http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/policy-options-for-connection-the-next-billion/contributions

Here is the landing page:
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/policy-options-for-connection-the-next-billion

Sincerely,
______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya

"There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on
higher ground in that lifetime." - Maxwell Anderson
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