A New Internet Ecosystem to Connect the Unconnected
June 28, 2018
The multiple stakeholders involved in Internet development must come up with a new ecosystem to connect those who are still unable to access the Internet by means of innovative ideas and by promoting a connectivity model that is different to the one used in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 25 years.
The digital divide will not be bridged by repeating what has been done over the past twenty years, and it is necessary to develop innovative strategies with the active participation of the communities interested in connecting to the Internet, said Oscar Robles, Executive Director of LACNIC, during the Latin American Telecommunications Congress (CLT) held in Cuba.
This new ecosystem design requires multistakeholder collaboration and different management models, where business organizations give up part of the spectrum they have obtained, and States create agile mechanisms to allow those communities interested in receiving network connectivity to use them.
Robles moderated one of the panels at CLT (Internet Access and Innovation – A Strategy for Growth and Economic Development), which analyzed the changes to the digital divide, which is becoming increasingly complicated each year as the population for which Internet access is the most difficult remains unconnected.
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The exchange of opinions was very valuable, and participants discussed the challenges faced when attempting to close this digital divide through innovative proposals and by designing and proposing alternative models to those applied so far.
Robles observed that the first solution must come from the communities themselves – many of which are geographically dispersed, in remote or difficult-to-reach areas, and even under vulnerable conditions – because they know their needs better than anyone else and can have a clearer idea of how to meet those requirements (click here to watch the interview).
The second contribution should come from the State, who should work with these communities and generate, for example, different regulations on the use of frequencies for Internet connections or granting benefits or exemptions to those who help connect the most remote and vulnerable communities.