TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Unlawful Eskom strike costing South Africa three stages of load shedding

      1 July 2022

      Striking Eskom workers will face consequences: De Ruyter

      1 July 2022

      The AI tool that has changed my life as a developer

      1 July 2022

      Google.co.za is down and the domain is pending deletion

      1 July 2022

      US files charges over South African bitcoin fraud scheme

      1 July 2022
    • World

      Meta girds for ‘fierce’ headwinds

      1 July 2022

      Graphics card prices plummet as crypto demand dries up

      30 June 2022

      Bitcoin just had its worst quarter in a decade

      30 June 2022

      Samsung beats TSMC to 3nm chip production

      30 June 2022

      Napster plots crypto comeback

      29 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The NFT party is over

      30 June 2022

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»In-depth»Internet for all remains an impossible dream

    Internet for all remains an impossible dream

    In-depth By The Conversation8 October 2015
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    world-640

    From satellites, to autonomous solar-powered drones, or balloons, there have been plenty of ideas recently on how to connect up the world. Facebook, Google, large international organisations, national governments, even Bono, have laid out ideas of a near future in which we are all hooked into the network.

    In the midst of all of this, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who is speaking at the IP Expo in London, recently made an interesting comment:

    wales

    This hope — the inevitability of the world becoming an Internet-connected society — is one that is widely repeated by other technologists, other policy makers and other thought leaders. However, hopes are one thing; how might this come about in reality? There are two ways in which this hypothetical future of universal, ubiquitous access to the Internet could be brought about.

    The first is a world where everyone can afford access. Affordability is obviously key, but as demonstrated in research about the costs of broadband worldwide it’s unlikely that just dropping prices will be sufficient.

    There will remain as there are now billions of people making only a subsistence living, for whom even the cheapest Internet access is unaffordable. The average worker in Ethiopia, for example, would need to spend more than one month’s salary to pay for even a very cheap broadband subscription.

    Groups such as the Alliance for Affordable Internet, which seek to increase the availability of and access to Internet through market competition, will ultimately have little to offer those in extreme poverty. So Jimmy Wales’ prediction will not come to fruition solely by relying on the market.

    The second future is the one promoted by large technology firms such as Facebook and Google. Through Internet.org (led by Facebook) and Free Zone (led by Google), users on select mobile networks get access to zero-cost Internet access.

    But there is actually a cost to those services. In exchange for free access, a very limited Internet is provided to users: locking users into services from, or those allowed by, the likes of Facebook and Google. So while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may assert that connectivity is a human right, he seems to be referring only to the sort of connectivity that pushes users into the advert-driven business model of Facebook.

    It’s these sorts of strategies that will bring about a very different sort of Internet: one where winners and losers, centres and peripheries, are already pre-selected by the organisations that control how you access the network. In much the same way that food aid as a development strategy harmed local farmers and markets in Africa, “connectivity aid” could similarly destroy the evolution of local content, local innovation and local alternatives.

    What this means is that ultimately it’s unlikely that ubiquitous access to the open Web will arrive in the near future. Simply lowering the cost of access will continue to leave out the very poorest. Whereas relying on the altruism of large technology firms will only introduce new digital divides between those with access to an open Web, and those locked into the informational diet fed to them by a few gatekeepers.

    If we want to get closer to Jimmy Wales’ vision, we need to think beyond both telecommunications markets and corporate altruism. A world in which everyone is connected isn’t inconceivable, but we’ll need new global strategies not pushed by organisations with ulterior motives and some more ambitious visions if we want to get there.The Conversation

    • Mark Graham is associate professor, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
    • This article was originally published on The Conversation
    Facebook Google Jimmy Wales Mark Graham
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleEskom coping in heatwave
    Next Article Motsoeneng loses court bid, faces suspension

    Related Posts

    Google.co.za is down and the domain is pending deletion

    1 July 2022

    Meta girds for ‘fierce’ headwinds

    1 July 2022

    Graphics card prices plummet as crypto demand dries up

    30 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Billetterie simplifies interactions between law firms and clients

    30 June 2022

    Think herding cats is tricky? Try herding a cloud

    29 June 2022

    How your business can help hybrid workers effectively

    28 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.