Why we need new internet connectivity from low Earth orbit and the stratosphere

A look at the persisting digital divide and how telecommunication networks from above promise to fully bring the 4 billion without connectivity into the digital fold.

Those of us in the developed world have become so reliant on ubiquitous internet connectivity that we are already becoming quite blasé about it. In fact, there is a growing trend to use our digital freedoms and privileges to criticize the internet and focus increasingly only on its downsides.

But to do so is to overlook the holistic benefits that full connectivity can bring. We should be directing our focus on the developing world and how access brings innumerable benefits to countries, economies and individuals. And not just economic benefits but benefits educationally, medically, politically and socially.

The facts and figures are stark and indisputable.

Only 47% of the world’s 7.3 billion people have access to the internet

More encouragingly — or not, depending on which side of the ‘Internet Good/Internet Bad’ argument you sit — 70% of the world’s youth (ages 15–24) are online in some form or another.

But the figures are important for highlighting the various disparities in internet access: to join disparities in ages online and the developed vs. developing world inequality, one can add that more men than women are online.

And the effects?

Deloitte goes on to state that the internet also provides numerous resources for teachers, including access to professional development courses.

Internet-enabled devices are already transforming the way healthcare professionals operate in developing countries by allowing remote diagnosis and more efficient forms of treatment.

The report further adds that the monitoring of illnesses can also be enhanced by mobile and internet applications which are designed to remind patients of their treatments and control the distribution of medicine stocks.

Access to the internet improves health outcomes in lesser-developed countries

West explains how doctors in the developing world can use mobile devices to find out which drugs are most effective for certain illnesses, check for drug interaction effects, and access a database that will tell them whether particular medications are counterfeit.

He adds that increasingly healthcare providers are using remote monitoring devices to check vital signs. Patients who live a great distance from treatment centers can electronically transmit health information to physicians, who can let them know if they have abnormal readings. This helps developing countries deal with healthcare disparities between rural and urban areas and brings expert diagnosis even to physically remote locations.

The internet’s role in civil society cannot be overemphasized either. One need only flick through the latest newspaper or switch on the evening news to be aware of how the internet is changing the nature of political engagement in the developed world, often not necessarily for the better.

But the ability to more widely communicate ideas and issues has incredible potential to totally transform political participation in the developing world.

West states in his 2015 paper that “…one of the biggest challenges in a disconnected world is getting people from different cultures and backgrounds to understand one another. It is easy in that situation for mistrust and intolerance to proliferate when people do not understand each other or have opportunities to communicate.”

Experiences on Twitter and Facebook may lead us in the developed world to wince at such idealism but we must not view the differences in the developing world through the narrow prism of our own, very particular, experiences.

Access to ubiquitous broadband internet fires — above all else — economic growth. And economic growth underpins all of the above benefits.

One last extract from the Deloitte study:

So the benefits are clear to see. But the practical and financial constraints in physically laying fiber-optic cable are holding back 100% connectivity. It is understandable when one looks at the business case for such connection: it is simply way too expensive. No matter how altruistic some companies’ aims and dreams the stark reality of finance inevitably — and understandably — prevents full connectivity.

The internet delivered from the skies

But a solution is in the offing. New pioneers and new technologists are looking to the skies and space to deliver internet connectivity. Constellations of satellites and high-altitude platforms (such as drones and UAVs) are being designed to provide a canopy of connection above the areas where it is most needed.

These new constellations promise to totally revolutionize the nature of internet connectivity and bring with them numerous benefits not just for the under-served and unconnected but also in areas such as Earth observation, energy monitoring, and rural and mobile connectivity.

And what do these constellations look like? And who is building them? We’ll look at these new constellations in more detail in our next two blog posts.

Related posts:

It all started decades ago when the technology started to live and prosper and the governments had to impose certain regulations to keep everything under the law.

When people talk about New York, they refer to it as “Concrete Jungle”, the “City That Never Sleeps” or “Big Apple”, the “City of Dreams” or the “Land of the American Dream”, but what most of those…

When it comes to our everyday lives and social media it really goes hand and hand. We are getting our news updates direct from the news stations via social media. We are also looking at the latest…