Funding Bottom up Connectivity: Approaches and Challenges of Community Networks to Sustain Themselves
| Autor | Carlos Rey-Moreno, Peter Bloom, Kathleen Diga, Mike Jensen, Karla Velasco Ramos, Nils Brock, Carlos Baca and Sarbani Banerjee Belur |
| Páginas | 53-72 |
53
Funding Bottom up Connectivity: Approaches and Challenges of
Community Networks to Sustain Themselves
3 Funding Bottom up Connectivity:
Approaches and Challenges of Community
Networks to Sustain Themselves
Carlos Rey-Moreno,20 Peter Bloom,21 Kathleen Diga,22
Mike Jensen,23 Karla Velasco Ramos,24 Nils Brock,25
Carlos Baca26 and Sarbani Banerjee Belur27
3.1 Abstract
Growth in the number of people connected to the Internet
worldwide is plateauing, and Internet connectivity at present only
reaches around 50% of the world population. As highlighted by
the Covid-19 pandemic, the connectivity divide between rich and
poor countries and between urban and rural areas perpetuates
highly unequal outcomes and contributes to recovery inequity.
Fortunately, the role of social purpose communications infrastructure,
often supported by civil society and non-profit organizations, is
increasingly being recognized by multilateral institutions such as the
ITU, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) and the Inter American Development Bank (IADB). There are
many terms used to refer to these community-owned and operated
networks: community networks (CNs), non-profit, social purpose,
etc. By whatever name, knowledge about the funding challenges
these initiatives face, the opportunities they afford, and the financing
mechanisms available to them, is scarce. This paper aims to fill this
gap by bringing together and updating resources produced by the
LocNet team around this topic.
20 Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
21 Founder and General Coordinator of Rhizomatica.
22 Coordinator in the Local Networks (LocNet) initiative, Association for Progressive Communications
23 Co-founder, “The Web” and Association for Progressive Communications. Member of the
Internet Society’s Internet Hall of Fame.
24 Latin America Regional Coordinator for the “Connecting the Unconnected” project of the
Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
25 Program director with DW Akademie; Collaborator of Rhizomatica and APC’s project “LocNet”.
26 General Coordinator of the Research Center in Technologies and Community Knowledge
(CITSAC).
27 Asia Regional Coordinator for the “Connecting the Unconnected” project of the Association for
Progressive Communications (APC).
54 Community Networks: Towards Sustainable Funding Models
3.2 Introduction
Growth in the number of people connected to the Internet worldwide
is plateauing, and Internet connectivity at present only reaches
around 50% of the world population. As highlighted by the Covid-19
pandemic, the connectivity divide between rich and poor countries
and between urban and rural areas perpetuates highly unequal
outcomes and contributes to recovery inequity (Pathfinders for
Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, 2021).
Among the many factors contributing to a lack of access for so
many, financing generally appears high on the list, and is one
of the 6 enablers of connectivity identified by the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2021). But as described in the
diagram below by the World Bank almost 20 years ago (Navas-
Sabater, Dymond, & Juntunen, 2002), when it comes to providing
universal affordable access, the traditional telecom industry model
leaves market factors, such as commercial feasibility, to determine
the areas where connectivity is provided and ultimately who is able
to access it. This has led to heavy infrastructure investments in urban
areas and in more wealthy countries, while rural areas and poorer
countries do not qualify for similar financing, and therefore remain
unconnected until new models are adopted.
Providing connectivity in rural and remote areas has always been
more challenging and costly for national operators. The revenue
potential from people with fewer economic resources in sparsely
inhabited rural areas are often insufficient to justify infrastructure
investment for national for-profit operators rooted in the ‘market
forces’ approach. The GSM Association (GSMA) estimates that
at least 3,000 active users are necessary to justify the cost of
installing a traditional GSM base station (Internet Governance Forum,
2016). Even in areas that are covered, these large operators may
not be able to offer services at an affordable price. The difficulty
commercial telecommunication companies face in justifying the
costly investments for providing rural infrastructure is typified by
this observation from mobile operator MTN Nigeria’s senior manager
of Access Transmission Planning, Tolulope Williams:
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