Cellular connectivity has provided impressive Internet growth in
Africa over the past decade, but according to the ITU, in 2017, Africa
only had 20% of the population using the Internet; a laggard compared to
40% in Asia & the Pacific and the 50% world average. We have
connected the easy half of the population and connecting the next half
of the world will require new innovative thinking.
This talk demonstrates how community owned network
technologies and organizational structures in Africa have been used to
provide access in hard to reach places where there is a lack of market
incentive or provide lower cost access solutions or where telecomm
operators are exploiting their market dominance. In addition, we show how community owned networks aim to move the locus of control of
telecommunications infrastructure and content back into the hands of
citizens. Some of the alternative connectivity technologies that is
discussed include TV and Cellular White Space technology, mesh
networks, and micro-clouds. David discusses his current work at
CITP on combining blockchain technology and mesh network to incentivise
expansion of a mesh network and enable users to easily become
Micro-WISPs.