GrantsBasic Internet access is now a sine qua non for effective functioning of governance, civil society, and education as well as for economic development. Public policy is a fundamental factor in hindering or enabling the investment and business models needed to provide affordable access. The telecommunications industry slump in recent years has drastically slowed the investment in infrastructure around the world; but bad legislation, monopolies, and poorly managed liberalization, as well as inappropriate regulatory regimes pose an even greater barrier to affordable access.
The aim of this component of the Information Program is to broaden sustainable (i.e., unsubsidized) Internet access for key open society constituencies in the most disadvantaged countries by supporting policy interventions and staging of new models. The initiaitve will explore the potential of emerging and experimental models as well as well-tested approaches to enable broader access in the absence of large-scale capital investment, especially in Africa, where the needs are greatest. These interventions include:
- policy work to open broader competitive access to existing, underutilized fiber infrastructure; one possible approach is to work towards an open-access policy in which the owner of fiber is required to give access, at a fair price, to any operator with an application that needs fiber access;
- promoting policies to encourage intelligent use of spectrum for wireless data communications, and supporting experiments with new packet data technologies;
- policy assistance to deal with the advent of Internet telephony, which has the potential to drive widespread, low-cost communications access in poorer countries.
For instructions on submitting an application for funding, please view the Information Program’s Guidelines and frequently asked questions.
View contact information for this initiative.
