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

[Barrack Otieno]

Indeed Kivuva,

This practical example can feature on the East African Internet
Governance Forum, now that it is happening in Uganda this week and
being co-hosted by the Ministry of ICT.

Regards

On 9/21/15, Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
> 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
>


-- 
Barrack O. Otieno
+254721325277
+254-20-2498789
Skype: barrack.otieno
http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/