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The Internet Communications

Universal Internet Access Unlikely Until at Least 2050, Experts Say (theguardian.com) 107

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Parts of the world will be excluded from the internet for decades to come without major efforts to boost education, online literacy and broadband infrastructure, experts have warned. From a report: While half the world's population now uses the internet, a desperate lack of skills and stagnant investment mean the UN's goal of universal access, defined as 90% of people being online, may not be reached until 2050 or later, they said. The bleak assessment highlights the dramatic digital divide that has opened up between those who take the internet and its benefits for granted and those who are sidelined because they either lack the skills to be online, cannot afford access or live in a region with no connection. "If there is any kind of faltering in the rate of people coming online, which it appears that there is, then we'll have a real challenge in getting 70%, 80% or 90% connected," said Adrian Lovett, CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation, an organisation set up by the inventor of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
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Universal Internet Access Unlikely Until at Least 2050, Experts Say More

Universal Internet Access Unlikely Until at Least 2050, Experts Say

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  • You pay Verizon $225 a month, you get access.

    • $225 for 5G with an 1TB cap and then $5/GB after that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      So you mean that Verizon can give me access anywhere in the universe for that price?

  • Sci-Fi doom prediction.

    Unlikely though.

    Anyway they're just wires why are they so bloody expensive?

  • Starlink (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tomahawk ( 1343 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @01:26PM (#57944900) Homepage

    What about SpaceX's Starlink? Surely that will be online long before 2050...

    • There will be more than just 1 earth covering satellite communications system and it will be likely that old cell phones from a few years into the future will be able to access the system. With the improvements in voice recognition and translation no one will need any real "Skills" to access the system. We will be able to just talk to the system and ask it questions and it will respond. The only thing they will need is a power source which will come from cheep solar. As quick as things are changing and cost

    • Right. There is talk of having, even in the most remote villages, a platform with Tesla solar panels and batteries, and a Starlink array with a Wi-Fi repeater on it, or whatever it is current at the time. This article probably means government-sponsored efforts, but the Muskovites will have us pretty much all online in the coming decade.

  • Lack of leadership. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @01:26PM (#57944910)

    We have had a general lack of leadership for the past 50 years, which makes performing large infrastructure projects like this nearly impossible.

    In America the biggest problem facing us isn't immigration, guns, abortion, or tax rates. But it is that we are running off generation(s) old infrastructure, for Communication, Power Transmission, Transportation, and Water. In Rural areas of America if you drive down the roads, which are often too twisted and unkempt for a fast enough driving speed, and not wide enough for multi-lane, there are modified telegraph poles, that hold haphazardly Power, Telephone, Cable, and sometime Fiber Optic, which due to the bad roads sometimes will get hit by a car and knock out a good chunk of your infrastructures in one spot. Then we have water supplies which is being polluted from older Industrial activity, or in water manes made while Lincoln was president, which are breaking and needing to be patched up, while chunks of cities need a boil water advisory.

    We are living with an infrastructure of the early 20th century, which has been hacked and updated. Our Elected officials havn't been much of leaders taking advice from experts and working the tradeoffs and making a plan of action and pushing it. They have been just putting out fires, and trying to get money for their fixes.

    • Not sure how upgrading the infrastructure in the US is going to help providing internet access in Cambodia, but I like how you think.

      • The US could lead by example. Compared to other countries the US is unique in having a Large Population, with a low Population Density. We have a lot of rural areas that are spread out, as well the US has nearly every sort of climate. If we get the US infrastructure upgraded, we have a model for many other low density and diverse climates and could pivotal in upgrading their infrastructure as well. Mainly because the more positive influence the US has in the world, the more peaceful the rest of the world

        • The US could lead by example. Compared to other countries the US is unique in having a Large Population, with a low Population Density.

          Russia has us beat on that score by a country mile so unique is not the right word. Unusual would be a better choice. Technically so does Brazil though because of the Amazon that is somewhat misleading.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I think the real issue is that we didn't really pay for the old infrastructure that we built and instead kicked the bill down the road, and it's still not something that anyone wants to pay for, but we're more than willing to keep spending on credit.

      Hopefully future countries will be able to look back on our mistakes and create a constitution that prohibits the government from spending money it doesn't have. It doesn't really matter how it's spent, because it will almost assuredly end poorly.
    • I think the feedback loops for such projects are too large, and hence, prone to "pet projects" and corruption/theft. That said, I think the locals/immediate users should pay for their own stuff - if it's not worth it, then it's not worth it; why invest in waste? To that end, I think having most roads as (automatic, electronic) tolls roads is a good idea; it shrinks the money feedback loops even smaller.

      And I respectfully disagree regarding the 1000+ [washingtonpost.com] who sneak across our border every day as not being t

    • Gerrymandering (Score:2, Interesting)

      by sjbe ( 173966 )

      In America the biggest problem facing us isn't immigration, guns, abortion, or tax rates.

      Agreed. I would argue it is gerrymandering. Yeah our infrastructure is a problem but I'd argue it is a consequence of other structural problems - gerrymandering not the least among them.

      We are living with an infrastructure of the early 20th century, which has been hacked and updated.

      Don't know if you've traveled much but we're hardly unique in that regard. Much of western Europe has infrastructure that is similarly dated. Not saying they are better or worse but it's not a problem unique to the US.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re "running off generation(s) old infrastructure, for Communication"
      Thats what years of NN like rules kept in place for a few large near monopoly brands.
      "Elected officials" are stuck having to protect monopoly networks due to rules and laws.
      Open top to community broadband. Get some innovation into the parts of a state and city that can pay to create their own innovative new networks.

  • Parts of the world will be excluded from the internet

    That makes it sound like some evil entity is actively denying these people access. But is anyone actually doing that?

    Being too poor to afford something or not being smart enough to do something is not the same thing as being excluded from these activities. I like airplanes and would love to build my own kit plane, but I'm not smart enough or skilled enough to do that. Am I being excluded from aviation by evil priviledged oppressors?

  • 'Putting the cart before the horse' (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @02:02PM (#57945238) Journal
    I think perhaps we should work more on 'universal access' to clean water, enough food to eat, and safe countries to live in for everyone, before we worry about 'universal internet access'. It's kinda hard to enjoy watching the box-centric antics of Maru on YouTube when you're dying of dehydration, malnutrition, or the local Warlord or Druglord is kicking in the door of your shack to steal your children, kill you, or both. Google, Facebook, and whoever else, can just wait their turn to monetize the rest of the 7,000,000,000 on this planet whose personal information they haven't been able to monetize yet.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      I think perhaps we should work more on 'universal access' to clean water, enough food to eat, and safe countries to live in for everyone, before we worry about 'universal internet access'. It's kinda hard to enjoy watching the box-centric antics of Maru on YouTube when you're dying of dehydration, malnutrition, or the local Warlord or Druglord is kicking in the door of your shack to steal your children, kill you, or both. Google, Facebook, and whoever else, can just wait their turn to monetize the rest of the 7,000,000,000 on this planet whose personal information they haven't been able to monetize yet.

      Your reasons seem fair. But the opposite reason is that internet access is what will *enable* folks to do better - better market prices for their produce, better job opportunities, better oversight of their leaders, better community organization.

      • WITH ALL DUE RESPECT: I think you're looking at this from the perspective of someone who has always had a roof over their head, has never gone hungry or thirsty a day in your life, has always had medical attention when you needed it, and has never had their life threatened by anyone for any reason, therefore you're having a problem imagining the places and people I'm talking about.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

          WITH ALL DUE RESPECT: I think you're looking at this from the perspective of someone who has always had a roof over their head, has never gone hungry or thirsty a day in your life, has always had medical attention when you needed it, and has never had their life threatened by anyone for any reason, therefore you're having a problem imagining the places and people I'm talking about.

          I did work for a year as a volunteer in the remote hilltowns of northern India so I have a slightly broader perspective. I'm thinking of existing proven benefits to (1) access micro-credit, (2) get market prices on cellphones in advance of walking a day to market, (3) transfer small amounts of money to friends and relatives from the wage-earner in the big town.

          I think that what folks need to get out of grinding poverty is economic empowerment, and that's the only long-term means. Anything else - food, relia

          • Let me be clear here:

            Give a man a fish, he eats for a day
            Teach a man to fish, he eats the rest of his life

            I'm talking about 'teaching them to fish'; help people in countries that don't have the infrastructure, to build the infrastructure so they can have clean water. Teach them how to farm and get them started. Promote peace in countries that are overrun with violence. Hell, if we could find ways to help South American countries improve their living conditions, crime rate, and overall quality of life, we wouldn't have thousands of migrants on the border wanting to get in right now, and ever

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      I think perhaps we should work more on 'universal access' to clean water, enough food to eat, and safe countries to live in for everyone, before we worry about 'universal internet access'.

      I agree that for the poorest that is the most urgent need. But between that billion and the ones who actually are connected we have a few billion who aren't in any immediate need, but they're dirt poor and have very few valuable skills. And you may of course say education and that's right, there's still 100 million age 15-24 who are illiterate but Internet is a pretty strong tool for self-learning once you get past the basics. And I don't mean first world brats who'll watch cat videos, but third world kids

    • Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Give him internet access to look up how and where to best catch fish and buy supplies, and he eats for life.

  • Probably because a lot of folks are waiting for an alternative to Verizon or Comcast.
  • , maybe 2030.
    The sats systems, 1-web and starlink, are coming. At first, they will be expensive, but by 2025, the prices will drop way down. More importantly, knowing the ppl behind both of these, they will likely build earth based transceivers that will simple relay between the sat and 1M signals to phones, laptops, etc for 3rd world nations. Basically, these will be made cheap. Why? Because it will enable lots of IOT.

  • Wrong word (Score:3)

    by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @02:18PM (#57945348)

    Universal means not just this planet, or just this star system or even just this galaxy .

    First we need to develop a means of FTL communication

  • Will anyone care? (Score:3)

    by rnturn ( 11092 ) on Friday January 11, 2019 @02:33PM (#57945472)

    In a few years, governments and their corporate overlords may very well have turned the Internet into something that you may not even want to connect to if it's available in your locale.

  • The problem with the word "universal", is that it evokes a sense of outer space. The word "global" does a much better job of describing this planet.

    It's better because instead of picturing black space and stars and radiation, one pictures water and trees and animals.

    I think if one were to look at the cost of internet in any place that currently has internet access, one would discover that the monetary cost of that connection is enough to feed any place that currently does not have internet access.

    For examp

  • IPV6... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Bet ipv6 still won't be in common use by then.

  • Using the road analogy for the internet super highway,
    I can drive tollway for an extra fee, or on a freeway for a cost, or walk on a road for free.

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