Universal Broadband Connectivity Funding Models need to be accessible.
Just offering connectivity in all parts of the world, isn’t enough.
At present the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) estimates that 2.6 Billion people don’t have access to the Internet (report released September 2023).
But what if we could magically offer broadband internet to everyone tomorrow. How would they pay for it?
I mentioned in my TEDx talk about how remote location can make it uneconomic to supply Broadband.
But what if through use of innovations such as #D2D Direct-To-Device technologies, we eliminated Broadband coverage blackspots.
What then.
We would still need to make the service affordable.
This is a challenge in a world where many only earn a few dollars a day (some even less).
Why should we care, its a dog-eat-dog capitalist world right!
Well whether you are a socialist or a free market capitalist, there are benefits for all.
Let me explain.
For the person that believes that everyone should be equal (socialist viewpoint), then its obvious sense to provide broadband to everyone.
But for the free market capitalist, the benefits may not immediately appear obvious.
But I would say to them (the free market capitalists), imagine the trade opportunities.
Imagine a world which is effectively more deregulated, than it is now.
Its deregulated in the sense that there are no longer geographic barriers to trade.
New markets are opened.
New potential suppliers of labour and goods are connected, no matter how remote their geographical location.
Two way trade can take place, not only can we buy their newly available products and services, but they can prosper and then buy ours.
So how can we fund this new worldwide era of business trade utopia?
Well lets focus on satellites.
Satellites capable of sending broadband directly to Smartphones do exist.
They are a type of new LEO, or Low Earth Orbit Satellite.
They also have the potential to provide global broadband.
Satellite operators are commercial companies with investors, and therefore need to make a return on their investment (ROI).
So here are possible ways to pay the satellite companies to allow service access.
Providing service access would allow connection to recycled smartphones, thus providing connection to the unconnected, who can’t afford commercial access rates.
One potential funding model would be through existing charity and NGO organisations.
This would work by using a part of their income, to purchase Broadband access, from the satellite operators.
So to make this easily understood, imagine that you could donate through the charity, to fund satellite access, in the same way that you can currently sponsor a child, or buy a goat for someone in the developing world.
Just imagine the benefit to individuals and communities, gaining access to the internet.
A second possible funding model could be directly through the United Nations.
If the United Nations (UN) coordinated a special financial fund, it could create an MVNO.
An MVNO stands for Mobile Virtual Network Operator.
An MVNO doesn’t own the network infrastructure, but instead is the customer facing part.
MVNO’s are common within the fixed and mobile broadband industry, an example being supermarket mobile / cell phone contracts.
In this example, you deal with the supermarket, and not the network operator.
If the UN created its own MVNO, then it could pay the satellite network operators, from the collected funds.
Funds could be collected via governments contributing to a fund, that the UN managed.
I hope you found my ideas on Universal Broadband Connectivity Funding interesting.