Access all areas - Independent Internet Infrastructures in Brazil, India and South Africa (en)

Tim Human, Jan Lachenmayer The complex and multidimensional
challenge of digital inclusion is being tackled by corporations,
governments, and ever more so, by entrepreneurs and innovators.
Before any of us create solutions though, we need to understand
what the key barriers are to Internet adoption, and figure out the
best ways to intervene. In this session, three initiatives, the
winners of the Mozilla Equal Ratings challenge, will present their
solutions on how to connect underserviced communities. All three
initiatives target different demographies and use different
technologies: Gram Marg Solution for Rural Broadband: The team from
Mumbia, India has built an open source low-cost hardware prototype
utilizing Television White Spectrum to provide affordable access to
rural communities. Afri-Fi: Free Public WiFi: The South-African
team has created a financially sustainable model called Project
Isizwe connecting brands to an untapped, national audience,
specifically low-income communities who otherwise cannot afford
connectivity. Free Networks P2P Cooperative:  The Brazilian
Cooperative enables communities to set-up networks to get access to
the Internet and then supports itself through the cooperative fees,
and while co-creating the knowledge and respecting the local
cultures.   The three initiatives will present their work,
exchange experiences and challenges and discuss how their efforts
can be scaled in order to connect the next 4 billion.