Project Loon

In recent years, access to the Internet has become increasingly important for individuals’ and communities’ economic productivity, as well as improved access to goods and services, education, government services and more. Some in the developed world, including First Lady Michelle Obama [1], have even begun to refer to Internet connectivity as a universal right. In reality, however, Internet access is very far from universal. As of 2013, 4.4 billion people — over 60% of the world’s population — were not connected to the Internet [2]. And, while Internet penetration is increasing, the rate of its increase has slowed slightly, from around 15% a year in the mid ’00s to around 10% in the late ’00s. If this trend continues, over half the global population will still be offline in 2017 [2]. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly called this global digital divide “one of the great problems of our generation” [3]. And, in one way or another, overcoming this lack of Internet access is the focus of many ICTD initiatives, whether they aim to increase Internet access directly (e.g., First Mile Solutions’ drive-by DakNet) or simply compensate for its absence (e.g., EduPaL’s adaptation of the MOOC concept to offline use via USBs). While making affordable Internet access universally available is no panacea for global poverty, there are many reasons to believe that many of the 4.4 billion people without Internet access would benefit from access to it.