Microsoft seeks to bring internet to millions in Africa and also in Guatemala and Mexico

Microsoft announced plans on Wednesday to provide internet access via satellite to 10 million people, half of them in Africa, but also in countries like Guatemala and Mexico, as part of efforts to reduce the digital divide with the developing world.

At a summit with African leaders in Washington led by the US president Joe Bidenthe tech giant said it would start the satellite project immediately with the priority of bringing internet to parts of Egypt, Senegal and Angola for the first time.

The president of Microsoft, Brad SmithHe said the company was impressed with its engineers in Nairobi and Lagos. In Africa, “there is no shortage of talent, but there is a great shortage of opportunity,” Smith told AFP.

In the partnership with satellite provider Viasat, Microsoft said it will also provide internet in Guatemala, Mexico and remote parts of the United States. It will also intensify efforts in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Smith explained that the biggest obstacle to internet access has been a lack of electricity, which is unreliable for about half of Africans.

“For people who don’t go there or spend time thinking about Africa, it’s hard to even imagine because electricity, in my opinion, is the greatest invention of the 19th century,” Smith said.

When you think about broadband, you can’t have internet access at any speed without access to electricity,” he added.

According to Smith, Microsoft focused on finding low-cost solutions in areas where there is no internet but also no electricity.

This project is part of Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, which seeks to provide internet access to 250 million people, 100 million of them in Africaby the end of 2025.

More than a third of the world’s population, some 2.9 billion people, have never connected to the internet despite rapid advances in developed countries and some of the major emerging economies, according to the UN International Telecommunication Union.

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