Live updates

From the Amazon rainforests to the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is bridging the digital divide, unveiling an ambitious project to bring cutting-edge internet connectivity to its population of 213 million.

The expansive Fifth Generation (5G) infrastructure to turbocharge digital capacity in the world’s fifth-largest economy expands high-speed internet service to the nation’s highways and schools. Activation in state capitals and the Federal District is expected by September 29, with twelve of 27 state capitals ready to roll out “internet access to all citizens.”

For the nearly 30 million underserved in rural, low-income communities who lag in the democratization of data, the 5G rollout puts access to digital information within reach. Bridging the inequality gap, Brazil will deploy 4G or higher wireless internet for 10 million in northern Brazil, including 500 remote Amazon villages lacking access.

The 5G investment anticipates a windfall for Brazil’s economy of $34 billion over the next 20 years, according to Brazilian Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL).

Industries can expect such cost-saving innovations as autonomous mining operations, self-driving trucks, and AI-controlled manufacturing sites. A Dell Technologies IT survey (2021) predicts faster data streams and Artificial Intelligence would spark agricultural advances from automated greenhouses and self-watering crops to farming machines that maintain themselves.

Designing the 5G framework through public-private collaboration and an Open RAN network, instead of a single-supplier system, would incentivize market competition and spur innovation. Dell Technologies, a member of Anatel’s Open RAN working group, projects long-term benefits of adaptability, skills sharing, and job generation. Dell is partnering with Brazilian telecom providers on a pilot program that will demonstrate economic gains.

“Our company is wholly committed to the generational transformation of Brazil’s 5G ecosystem,” says Luis Goncalves, President of Dell’s Latin American operations. “5G is the great equalizer, and we welcome opportunities to empower Brazilians with universal access to realize their potential in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Revolutionary progress on emerging technologies for a more equitable society places Brazil at the forefront of Latin America’s 5G innovation. It promises to solidify its status as an economic powerhouse for generations.

To take the pulse of technology and business trends, Dell Technologies has been regularly surveying 800 IT decision-makers (ITDMs) across six countries (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Brazil, and China). Read more here.

Building a site for a cell phone tower costs about US $175,000 on average, and leasing costs can push the total expense as high as US $1 million. Costs can be 18% higher in rural areas and 35% higher in remote locations than they are in cities, while the revenue operators earn in those areas can be up to 90% lower.

This explains why so many parts of the United States – and the world – remain cut off from the internet.

Recently a group of students from Cornell and Shanghai Jiaotong Universities studied how Huawei created a new type of cell site tower optimized for rural areas. Dubbed RuralStar, its goal was to lower installation costs, giving telecom operators a quicker return on their investment.

To save on construction costs, engineers initially built the cell towers out of wood. They also lowered the height of the tower from 164 feet to just 19 feet, greatly reducing costs and creating more flexibility on where the towers could be located.

Engineers also experimented with different ways to supply each site with electric power. Using solar panels saved operators money by reducing the amount of diesel fuel they had to buy for electric generators. It also cut labor costs, since technicians didn’t have to re-fuel the cell sites quite so often.

These innovations helped lower the capital cost of building a cellular base station from $330,000 to less than $15,000. MTN Ghana, the telecom operator that piloted RuralStar, saw a return on its investment in just 30 months.

At last, providing poor rural areas with a high-speed internet connection had became economically viable.

Since then, more than 400 of these sites have been deployed across Ghana, serving 900,000 people there. In total, it is being used in about 60 countries, connecting more than 50 million people to the internet.

Authors:

Chris Marquis is the Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management at the University of Cambridge and formerly Samuel C. Johnson Professor of Global Sustainable Enterprise at Cornell University. Haitao Yin is Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Antai College of Economics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Singapore aims to build on the widespread adoption of digital tools to strengthen digital capabilities and improve the usability of digital services for 1 million people by 2025.

Singapore's commitment to the EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge includes:

These efforts are part of broader initiatives to enable the use of digital services across the public and private sectors for Singapore’s population of 5 million people.

During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022, AstraZeneca announced their commitment to the EDISON Alliance 1 Billion Lives Challenge.

AstraZeneca is committed to leveraging digital innovation to improve inclusion and equity across the healthcare ecosystem. In partnership with health-tech start-up Qure.ai, AstraZeneca uses AI-based software to improve referral and diagnostic pathways for patients with possible lung cancers across Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. This is part of a broader commitment to screen 5 million patients globally with the Qure.ai technology by 2025.

This ambition is part of AstraZeneca’s broader commitment to pioneer accessible digital solutions in health and education to improve early-stage detection and diagnosis of diseases, support health tech entrepreneurs, train healthcare professionals and empower employees.

Read more here.

The pandemic accelerated the digitization of everyday life and essential services worldwide. Yet, a third of the world’s population – 2.9 billion people – do not use the internet. Cost, not coverage, is often a main barrier to connectivity.

The EDISON Alliance – a global movement of public and private sector leaders committed to prioritize digital inclusion – launched the 1 Billion Lives Challenge to improve 1 billion lives globally through affordable access to digital solutions across healthcare, financial education, and education by 2025.

Today, two more initiatives are being launched to help further the EDISON Alliance’s digital inclusion objectives.

Rima Qureshi, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Verizon, noted that since the EDISON Alliance was launched 18 months ago, they have doubled the number of members championing digital inclusion. From the 46 members conforming the EDISON Alliance, half have already made a commitment to the 1 Billion Lives Challenge.

Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme, highlighted that the World Economic Forum, UNDP and BCG developed the Digital Inclusion Navigator as a one-stop-shop of curated case studies, leading best practices, and relevant information on digital inclusion to inspire policymakers and relevant stakeholders to take action in their own context .

Paula Ingabire, Minister for ICT and Innovation, Government of Rwanda, noted that the Lighthouse Countries Network being launched serves as a global implementation platform for EDISON Alliance projects locally. This network aims to facilitate new partnerships, incentivize projects, and unlock capital to further digital inclusion at the national level – and includes Rwanda, Bahrain and Bangladesh in its first wave of Lighthouse Countries.

The EDISON Alliance, in collaboration with the UN Development Programme and Boston Consulting Group, has built a digital platform to help policymakers find the best practices and resources that lead to greater digital inclusion.

The Digital Inclusion Navigator is a one-stop-shop of curated, high-quality information, real-world case studies, leading best practices, and other evidence-based content from trusted sources. Its initial focus is on the role of digital services in healthcare, financial services, and education as well as expanding access to and use of digital connectivity and technologies.

Developed by and with experts across government, the public sector, and other organizations, this knowledge tool aims to help policymakers make quicker and better sense of overwhelming and often siloed information to further digital inclusion.

As part of the EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge, the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) has made a commitment to impact the lives of more than 4.5 million low-income entrepreneurs (the majority of them being women) in Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic, Chile and Panama by 2025.

BBVAMF’s microfinance institutions plan to provide up to €7billion in financing, using mostly digital solutions to provide financial and digital skills development programmes, internet access and transactional services for their progress and that of their families and communities.

BBVAMF is a nonprofit institution created by BBVA within its corporate social responsibility framework, for the purpose of promoting sustainable and inclusive economic and social development for people under vulnerable conditions.

Since 2007, the microfinance institutions of the BBVAMF have disbursed more than €14 billion to low-income entrepreneurs.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has deployed a network of over 300 cloud-enabled eHealth Centres, COVID Labs, and Vaccination Centres across 22 states in India to provide various healthcare services to citizens.

Deployed in partnership with central and state government agencies, this network has already served more than 4 million people in India, reaching even remote locations that traditionally are hard to serve.

As part of HPE’s commitment to the EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge, their goal is to expand their network to over 1,000 eHealth Centres, with at least 10 telemedicine studios, to serve an additional 4 million people by 2025.

Dell Technologies has made a commitment to the EDISON Alliance’s 1 Billion Lives Challenge to advance digital inclusion in education and health for 60 million individuals by 2025.

Through their flagship programmes such as Get Digital Skills, Girls Who Game, Dell Student TechCrew, and Solar Community Hubs, Dell aims to provide fundamental digital literacy, future in-demand technology skills and curriculum to individuals in under-represented communities in collaboration with public, private, and nonprofit sector partners.

Nokia has set a target to improve the lives of 1.5 million people by 2025 through socially-driven digitalization projects, digital skill building, and connecting the unconnected or underserved. Nokia is the latest EDISON Alliance member to join the 1 Billion lives Challenge.

Nokia’s broadband solutions bring connectivity to households, community centres, hospitals and libraries, and provide access to opportunities in healthcare, education, work and public services.

Inmarsat, a leading provider of global mobile satellite communications powering connectivity solutions for various markets, has joined the EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge. The company is committing to provide connectivity and digital services to 400,000 maritime crew members, a critically underserved community, by 2025.

Over this period, Inmarsat also plans to impact the lives of 28.8 million people directly affected by disasters globally by deploying satellites, enabling connectivity, providing digital services, and creating long-term relief.

Kredivo announces their commitment to the EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge by pledging to provide access to digital financial services to up to 20 million people in Indonesia, as well as Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines over the next 5 years.

This is being achieved through financial services that are fast, affordable and widely accessible in Indonesia – and increasingly across Southeast Asia, where nearly two-thirds of the population is either underbanked or completely unbanked.

Read more here.

Darsel, an educational technology non-profit organization, has made a commitment to EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge to improve academic outcomes for 1 million students in primary and secondary school by 2025. Darsel is committed to bridging the digital divide by providing a free learning platform for students, including those with no internet access, to practice and learn math through simple and accessible channels such as SMS and WhatsApp.

Darsel can be accessed from any phone and is a text-based solution that requires little data (or none, in countries where SMS is available). Its math library contains over 100,000 questions, hints and explanations aligned to the local curriculum and provides a personalized learning algorithm that automatically adapts to each student’s levels.

Bharti Enterprises has joined the 1 Billion Lives Challenge and committed to improve the lives of 200 million people by 2025 through financial inclusion and education initiatives in India and Africa. Bharti aims to bridge the digital divide with underserved communities by increasing digital awareness, accessibility and affordability of its services.

Through its companies in India and Africa, including Bharti Airtel, Airtel Africa, Airtel MCommerce, Airtel Payments Bank and Bharti Foundation – Bharti Enterprises will focus on bringing digital connectivity and financial inclusion to unserved or underserved communities. This includes making digital banking services available to the unbanked or underbanked in rural areas – in particular to farmers and small businesses; extending affordable micro credit to aid women entrepreneurs; bringing digital education to underprivileged students; training teachers in rural communities digitally; extending 4G data connectivity to data starved regions; and making device ownership affordable for low-income groups.

Dr Muhammad Al Jasser, President of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and Group Chairman, is the latest member to join the World Economic Forum's EDISON Alliance for digital inclusion. IsDB is also the first multilateral development bank to join the Alliance.

Since its inception, IsDB has been supporting digital transformation in its 57 member countries and the ICT sector through stand-alone projects, as well supporting other sectors such as education, health and agriculture for various operations.

IsDB published its ICT policy in 2019, and as part of its strategy to foster digital inclusion, it is developing a roadmap to guide its involvement and interventions in financing ICT-related initiatives and programmes. The roadmap is also setting the path towards a full-fledged ICT and digital development/inclusion strategy with member countries by 2025.

The new game-based role-playing experience ‘AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner’ and an enhanced AWS Educate program offer free hands-on learning opportunities for people seeking cloud computing skills.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is announcing two new, free training initiatives that make it easy for individuals to get hands-on cloud computing skills training in a fun and engaging way. The first initiative is a new game-based role-playing experience, called AWS Cloud Quest: Cloud Practitioner, ideal for early career or new-to-cloud adult learners. AWS Cloud Quest teaches foundational cloud computing concepts while learners zap drones and collect gems in their quest to solve challenges in a virtual city.

AWS also launched a new, improved version of AWS Educate, with added interactive content and removal of the .edu email address requirement, making the program even more accessible. With AWS Educate, learners as young as 13 years old can access hundreds of hours of free, self-paced training, resources, and labs specifically designed for new-to-the-cloud learners.

Read more here.

Cloud computing needs exploded after COVID-19 emerged but worker skills aren't keeping pace. In this episode the VP of Training and Certification at Amazon Web Services discusses the sought-after digital skills workers must train for now to prepare for future needs. She explains how AWS is scaling training to millions through a range of free programs and platforms and how simple routines used by her and her team can help you sharpen your skills now and in the years ahead.

India has made a commitment to the EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge to facilitate digital healthcare and financial inclusion for at least 116 million people in the country by 2025.

Through its leading policy institution, NITI Aayog, India plans to bring a whole-of-government approach to this goal in pursuance of the Prime Minister Modi’s vision of ensuring 100% saturation of all government schemes.

This will be achieved by expanding the coverage of Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Cards for digital and cashless healthcare insurance, and rolling out an app under the Technology Commons Programme to allow access to formal credit for vulnerable citizens - among other activities.

Dr Ann Aerts, Head of the Novartis Foundation, has joined the World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance for digital inclusion. With almost 50 leaders from the public and private sector mobilized, the EDISON Alliance is fostering collaboration to deliver affordable and accessible digital solutions across healthcare, financial inclusion, and education.

The Novartis Foundation is the latest EDISON Alliance partner to join the connectivity ecosystem as they are committed to advancing population health and equity through digital solutions such as through data and AI.

“The EDISON Alliance shares great synergies with the Novartis Foundation’s focus on improving health equity and inclusion through the power of digital technologies, and with the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development Working Group on Virtual Health and Care, which we co-chair with the WHO. I look forward to helping combine the power of these initiatives to help realize our shared missions,” said Dr Ann Aerts, Novartis Foundation Head & EDISON Alliance Champion.

Crescent Enterprises is the first business in the Middle East and North Africa to commit to the 1 Billion Lives Challenge, pledging to impact at least 100,000 youth in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) region by 2025.

Crescent Enterprises, an EDISON Alliance member, will achieve their goal through a set of comprehensive initiatives including targeted venture tech investments, digital business incubation, and corporate citizenship programmes. These initiatives target underserved communities, with a focus on digital access, telehealth, and digital skilling.

Read the press release here.

As an organization committed to digital inclusion, women’s empowerment and the potential of young people as leaders of change, Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), is the latest organization to commit to the EDISON Alliance’s 1 Billion Lives Challenge.

DOT is committed to deliver digital literacy and 21st-century skills in the marginalized communities and schools of Africa and the Middle East, to reach 1 million people by 2025. This is in addition to the 3 million people who have already been positively impacted globally by DOT’s 6,500+ youth leaders.

One year after it was launched, the EDISON Alliance continues to mobilize a strong movement of leaders from the public and private sector to accelerate digital inclusion. Today, one-third of EDISON Alliance members have made commitments to the 1 Billion Lives Challenge to improve affordable and accessible digital solutions to healthcare, financial services, and education for 1 billion people by 2025.

Read more here.

The government of Bahrain is committed to digital inclusion in education and is enabling students to learn remotely through the rollout of the Ministry of Education's EduNet cloud platform. As part of the EDISON Alliance's 1 Billion Lives Challenge, Bahrain plans to positively impact the lives of more than 600,000 people by 2025.

Bahrain will provide students, parents, and teachers access to e-learning digital instruments, enable the EduNet platform curriculum to be fully accessible digitally, and ensure that every public school in the country is supported with stable internet.

Ericsson announced a major new commitment to empower one million children and young people by 2025 through access to digital learning, tools, content and development programmes.

The commitment will be realized through Ericsson’s leading Connect To Learn initiative which has positively impacted more than 200,000 children and young people in more than 25 countries around the world since its foundation in 2010.

Ericsson’s commitment to the World Economic Forum’s EDISON Alliance 1 Billion Lives Challenge comes in addition to its partnership with UNICEF, in support of the Giga Initiative. The Giga Initiative is a partner of the EDISON alliance and aims to connect every school to the internet by 2030 and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice.

Read more here.

Amazon is seeking approval from US communications regulators to deploy more than 4,500 additional satellites as part of the company's effort to deliver broadband internet to areas around the world that lack high-speed service.

Amazon asked the Federal Communications Commission for approval to launch and operate two prototype satellites by the end of 2022. In its filing, Amazon stated that the satellites "will serve households, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations around the world, including in geographic areas where reliable broadband remains lacking."

Read more here.

Ericsson has released a point-of-view paper suggesting that it is possible to close the American digital divide—between those who, by virtue of their location, can access high-speed internet and those that can’t—in this decade. It requires changing perspectives about what matters most and the technologies needed to close the digital divide.

Closing the American digital divide this decade will require a mix of fiber, 5G and satellite services. This study helps clarify the path on how these can be combined.

Read more here.

The Bangladesh Water Development Board and the Access to Information (a2i) Programme have teamed up with the Google Flood Forecasting Initiative to enhance flood forecasting and warning systems to millions of people in remote parts of Bangladesh, the world’s biggest flood-prone delta.

Using Google’s Android smartphone, users receive forecasts through 'push notifications'. Piloted during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the proposed flood forecasting system will make available the names of the nearest shelters to local people through Google Maps and Google search.

Through these improved flood forecasting and warning systems, more vulnerable communities in remote areas can be reached at the right time.

Read more about this initiative here.

Listen to this podcast on Inclusive Leadership: Closing the Digital Divide with Ajay Banga and Bhaskar Chakravorti

Today’s increasingly digital world brings with it possibilities to create a more inclusive and accessible global economy. But, unless action is taken to enhance digital inclusion, the world may become more divided than ever before.

In this episode, Host Gautam Mukunda speaks with two leaders dedicated to digital inclusion who explain how to earn people’s trust and create a more inclusive world.

Ajay Banja, Executive Chairman of Mastercard, said, "I think companies can set their examples and can lead by what they do...In totality, I think companies, corporations, need to start thinking about what role they play in the community they live in. And...to start putting real volume to the idea of doing well and doing good at the same time.”

He spoke with Bhaskar Chakravorti, Dean of Global Business at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, and the Executive Director of Fletcher’s Institute for Business in the Global Context, who said, “A combination of our inherent desire for stories, narratives, and personalities and the media's need to continue to reinforce that, our notion of trust has been intimately tied, not just by the functions and companies but by the leaders themselves.”

The Women In Technology Huawei (WITH) program partnered with the DigiTruck program in May 2021 to provide training in digital skills for more than 80 women in Garbatulla, a remote village in Isiolo county, and Samburu county.

WITH

Women In Technology Huawei (WITH) was launched in 2019 with the aim of empowering, connecting, and supporting current and future generations of women.

WITH is based on the concept of “partnering WITH others” and is designed to provide women with role models through mentorship, skills, opportunities, and support to develop interests, careers, and leadership in STEM.

So far, WITH training and mentorship programs and competitions have reached 1,787 young women and female entrepreneurs.

DigiTruck

Converted from a shipping container, each DigiTruck is a fully solar-powered mobile classroom equipped with 20 laptops and a network connection and can be driven on the back of a truck into communities that lack training facilities and even a power supply. So far, the DigiTruck has provided over 30,002 hours of training for 1,794 people in Kenya, including 813 since the pandemic began and 363 in 2021 alone.

Read the full blog here.

"Innovation” is an ambiguous word that is used a lot in the tech industry. We routinely refer to new devices and products as “innovations,” and are quick to slap the label on any design, feature, or business model that we seek to differentiate from the pack – regardless of whether it constitutes an innovation in the truest sense of the word.

"But real innovation takes audacity – a willingness to take bold risks; challenge established ways of working; and have the courage of one’s convictions. Audacity took us to the moon and brought us smartphones. It gave us content streaming; the many iterations of the automobile; and several other life-changing and history-making inventions that have made our way of life everything it is today..."

Read more here from Rima Qureshi, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Verizon.