local access

Internet connectivity opens many opportunities for civil society groups and activists to participate in their countries’ political life, defend their rights and promote government transparency and accountability.

To document the benefits of, and challenges facing, small-scale, community-based connectivity projects, APC researchers visited 12 rural community networks in the global South in 2018 and studied a number of others through desk research and interviews. 

Welcome to the 18th monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks.

Welcome to the 17th monthly round-up of developments impacting your local access networks.

APC and partners participated in a public consultation on the revision of Kenya's broadband strategy, co-authoring a submission that stresses the need to enable alternative approaches to broadband delivery that can complement existing network operator models to bridge connectivity gaps.

In response to a public consultation, APC joined Rhizomatica, the Internet Society, World Wide Web Foundation/Alliance for Affordable Internet, ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa, Tunapanda Institute and Kenya ICT Action Network to present comments on Kenya's Revised National Broadband Strategy.

In 2018, the BPF on Gender and Access analysed the potential of supplementary models of connectivity to bridge the gender digital divide. It concluded that these initiatives could be instrumental in helping to overcome the barriers to access faced by women and non-binary people.

The “digital divide” in Colombia is particularly wide in rural communities, since service coverage, especially cellular mobile service, is concentrated in urban centres. In 2017, communities in the municipality of Buenos Aires began planning and developing their own communications network.