- Microsoft is planning to connect 40 million people across the world to the Internet by 2022. Here’s how.
Shelley McKinley, Vice President of Technology and Corporate Responsibility at Microsoft, announced recently that the company is planning to connect 40 million people across the world to the Internet by 2022. Microsoft plans to focus on rural and remote areas in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa followed by other regions. This is part of the international track of Microsoft’s Airband Initiative.
As of last year, half of the world’s population is online with some form of internet connection. However, this status quo still puts billions of people on the wrong side of the digital divide. By leaving half the world without access to the electricity of today’s age – which is Internet access and increasingly at broadband speeds — means that existing inequalities, poverty, and insecurity will persist.
“Efforts to accelerate internet access globally, with a focus on developing nations, are not new. But it’s clear that the world needs a new approach to this work. The UN State of Broadband Report found that broadband adoption has slowed, and progress is especially elusive in low-income countries and rural areas across the globe. Most of the connected population relies on low speed, basic cellular services and only 14.1% of the global population has an in-home internet subscription,” wrote McKinley in a blog post.
Specifically, Microsoft is planning to set up a four-part approach to focus on working with local ISPs and communities for building out affordable Internet access. This includes 1.) Removing regulatory obstacles to TV White Space (TVWS), 2.) partnering with local internet service providers (ISPs) to provide affordable and reliable internet services 3.) Enabling rural digital transformation in newly connected areas with a focus on supporting agriculture, education, rural entrepreneurship, telemedicine, and off-grid energy and 4.) Building a larger ecosystem of support with a focus on stimulating international financing.
To make this happen, Microsoft will is relying on strategic partnerships.
“In Colombia, with coffee company Lavazza, ALO partners, Makaia and Microsoft’s support, a small project connected two schools and five farms to broadband via TVWS technology – perfect technology for the region’s jungled and mountainous terrain. It has continued to grow, and now includes an agreement between Lavazza, Microsoft and the National Coffee Growers Association of Colombia that will result in the rural digital transformation for half a million small coffee farmers in the region. Additionally, Airband has co-invested with ISPs in Colombia to extend broadband access to 6 million rural Colombians – that’s 12% of Colombia’s total population,” added McKinley. “This work was accelerated by a partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Additional financing is critical to bring these from small projects to scale. The partners invited IDB to join, and this support has helped create results and a blueprint that can be showcased in other countries of the region to accelerate this work.”
In the United States, Microsoft will be working on building out Internet access in rural communities across the US. And the company is aiming to bring high-speed Internet access to over 9 million people in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
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