Brian Great stuff! Lots of initiatives out there. Great to see that some are actually working! Ali Hussein Principal Hussein & Associates +254 0713 601113 / 0770906375 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim Blog: www.alyhussein.com "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought". ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi Sent from my iPad
On 21 Sep 2015, at 11:54 AM, Barrack Otieno via kictanet <[email protected]> wrote:
Indeed Kivuva,
This practical example can feature on the East African Internet Governance Forum, now that it is happening in Uganda this week and being co-hosted by the Ministry of ICT.
Regards
On 9/21/15, Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <[email protected]> wrote: On 21 September 2015 at 11:09, Brian Munyao Longwe via kictanet < [email protected]> wrote:
We established a social enterprise that is using internet technologies to improve livelihoods for communities in this post-conflict regions. This is mainly through making high speed broadband available to rural communities at low cost. So far we have been able to establish points-of-presence in the towns of Gulu, Lira, Soroti and Mbale - NGOs, corporates and individuals alike have been flocking to take up the broadband services after years of poor quality and expensive services from the mobile operators who sell mainly data bundles that have poor performance. We ride on Uganda's national optical fiber network (owned by the ministry of ICT's National IT Authority - NITA-U). and from Kampala interconnect with a variety of bulk providers (Seacom, Liquid Telecom, Simbanet, BCS) who are connected to submarine networks via Mombasa. Our service approach has greatly challenged the internet services paradigm and scored greatly with our subscribers, many of whom enjoy better services in these rural towns than their colleagues/counterparts in the capital Kampala.
Thank you very much Brian for the great work. This is quite interesting. There is an IGF 2015 track called "Policy Options for Connecting the Next Billion". I am not sure if you have heard about it.
The short writeup of the same reads like this: "Technological advancement in connectivity expanded broadband access and mobile penetration in recent years. Three billion people were connected to the Internet by the end of 2014. In spite of the progress achieved, more effort is necessary in order to connect the next billion and to address the digital divide. The identification of strategies to improve connectivity is timely due to the ongoing process of reviewing the outcomes of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS+10) and the discussion of the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Collaboration between governmental and non-governmental actors is key to meet this challenge and the mutistakeholder nature of the IGF makes it a privileged space for discussion. "
What next: Your implementation is great and can form a great policy option for the IGF. We hope you are willing to contribute on the same. Local or regional IGF initiatives are encouraged to contribute on how "we can connect the next billion to the Internet". Here is the form created by the IGF secretariat to collect feedback. We can then have it presented at the global IGF in Brazil later in November. http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/policy-options-for-connection-the-next-billio...
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/policy-options-for-connection-the-next-billio...
Here is the landing page: http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/policy-options-for-connection-the-next-billio...
Sincerely, ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva, Nairobi, Kenya
"There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime." - Maxwell Anderson
-- Barrack O. Otieno +254721325277 +254-20-2498789 Skype: barrack.otieno http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/
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