I have just been struck by connecting three pieces of data that promise a total disruption of how we perceive access to the Internet connectivity.
The first is a statistics around Internet Access, by the world economic Forum that 4 billion people (mostly living in the developing world), do not have access to the Internet and by extension are not connected to engaging with business as we know it in the rest of the world. They remain disconnected from rest of the world or as Tim Berners-Lee says it is ‘far short of the UN Sustainable Development Goal to achieve universal connectivity‘.
75% of those who have access to the Internet live in a mere 23 countries. The ITU also claims that nearly 50% of the Global population use the Internet.
The second is the declaration by the United Nations that ‘access to the Internet’ is a fundamental human right, or in other words, these 4 billion people are denied a fundamental human right. The last piece of data comes from news reports providing us with tantalising visions of global Internet access using thousands of satellites (both mega and nano). Companies like SPACEx, Outernet, Google and Facebook are leading in the race to provide and in the process, gain first mover advantage in the industry. Governments like the European Union have similar initiatives. The EU is promising that the Galileo GPS replacement system will offer free navigation for anyone globally amongst other features.
Linking all of this together, one gets the impression that the business of providing global broadband (free or paid for) is ripe for disruption. Moving from a business model where we pay for trickle-down cable or fibre based Internet provision which in turn is based on dated telecommunication business models, to one that promises unlimited, unrestricted, untethered Internet access is fascinating.
Out technologically viable capability to connect untapped segments of the global population to any outposts of the fourth Industrial Revolution will disrupt the geographies of economic activity . Imagine the potential of using 3D printing for distributed global manufacturing points across low-cost countries? What about unleashing an additional 8 billion (a very conservative figure of mine) IoT devices using global Internet access?
If our efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic are successful, data driven digital technologies and services will rapidly change the world of Trade discriminate competitive advantage on the basis of getting access to Internet.
Moving on, if we were to allow existing business models to operate, huge transnational entities would control access to data by virtue of their market dominance and therefore exert a more dangerous form of control over this human right? Do we want faceless, nameless entities shrouded in tax havens to control data?
If you think governments are better suited to the provision of global Internet access, then what about the abuse of privacy? In an age where cyber-attacks using both state sponsored cyber warfare strategies and state condoned cyber-actors are becoming the new normal, will we have ‘Big Brother’ watching every piece of data? Will this lead to a new form of colonisation of states using access to the Internet?
Will you therefore agree with me that regardless of how this disruption takes place, there will still be a violation of someone’s human rights in some form or the other? This is disturbing as we head to a post Covid data driven world where most of us will do business in a networked ecosystem while others are deprived of digital connectivity.
