Broadband for Good

The Internet is emerging as one of the most important and powerful tools for social change globally and across social strata. As a recent United Nations special report notes, Internet access has become “an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress.” Citing the critical role that the Internet has played in the protection and promotion of basic human rights, the report joins a growing chorus in concluding that, “ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states.”

Unfortunately, while much of the world races ahead with high bandwidth access, millions of communities worldwide still lack broadband Internet access and the services it enables. As a result, students in these regions suffer from inadequate educational resources; clinicians struggle to provide adequate care; relief agencies are hampered by incomplete and delayed information flows; and young people’s skills and job opportunities are constrained.

Inveneo’s Broadband for Good Initiative was formally launched in January 2012 with the goal of accelerating access – high quality broadband access on 1 Mbs or more – to those who need it most in underserved or rural areas across emerging markets and the developing world.

Our approach is to identify opportunities for Inveneo and our partners so that we can become a catalyst in the delivery of a local ecosystem of ICT entrepreneurs and service providers. We do this, often using breakthrough low-cost technology, to deliver high quality broadband to organizations – schools, healthcare systems, government offices, economic and community development organizations and enterprises – in a way that can offer sustainable business models and scalable models once Inveneo exits.

It’s with this broadband access, that lives and opportunities can be transformed – through better education and healthcare, improved financial and community services and faster relief. We have even seen how high-quality Internet provides a gateway to a world of opportunity for individual users, permitting them to take control of their futures.

Our goals for Broadband for Good are:

  • Launch a 3-year initiative to catalyze rural broadband delivery models;
  • Build an expert team that will codify Inveneo’s lessons learned in deploying broadband ecosystems into a framework that can be applied to create context appropriate models in a variety of regions that can be successfully demonstrated and scaled;
  • Build an advisory board of experts and a collaborative alliance of organizations that have complementary goals and that can help drive progress on a regional or global scale;
  • Identify and invest in demonstration OSS/BSS systems that can accelerate rural service delivery by allowing easier and lower cost system integration;
  • Implement an array of demonstration projects with a range of delivery models with partners in East Africa and other underserved areas including South America and the Caribbean.

For more information contact: broadbandforgood@inveneo.org