James Delahunty
8 Oct 2013 3:29
Some of the biggest names in tech have formed a new group that aims to make Internet access more affordable in developing countries.
Among the group are Microsoft, Intel, Google, Yahoo, Facebook and more, and their goal is to reduce the high cost of Internet access in developing regions of the world. In some places, entry level Internet access could cost easily as much as 30 percent of monthly income.
While new technologies have the power to make Internet access more available than ever before, there is still considerable issues with the cost in some regions. The newly formed Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) aims to fight this problem through policy change.
"Policy change can help new innovation take hold and flourish; outdated policies can stifle progress," Google's blog reads.
Initiated by the World Wide Web Foundation, A4AI includes members from the technology, government, and nonprofit worlds, from developed and developing countries. A4AI has a specific goal in mind: to reach the UN Broadband Commission target of entry-level broadband access priced at less than 5% of monthly income worldwide.