WS #6 Bridging Digital Gaps in Agriculture & trade Transformation

Summary

This discussion focused on the use of innovative technology, specifically the Internet Backpack, to provide internet connectivity to rural and underserved communities in Africa. The panel, comprising experts in internet governance, policy, and technology, explored how this device could support agricultural development, education, and economic growth across the continent.

Dr. Lee McKnight introduced the Internet Backpack, explaining its ability to provide connectivity through cellular, satellite, and mesh networks, along with sustainable power solutions. The device was designed to connect up to 25 users simultaneously, though field tests have shown it can support over 35 users. Panelists emphasized the importance of community ownership and involvement in implementing such technologies.

The discussion highlighted the potential of the Internet Backpack to support various sectors, including agriculture, education, and healthcare. Kwaku Antwi noted how improved connectivity could enhance agricultural value chains and market access for farmers. Mama Mary stressed the importance of digital skills development and community networks in rural areas.

Panelists also addressed regulatory and policy considerations, with Dr. Jimson Olufuye emphasizing the role of the private sector in expanding connectivity. The potential use of universal service funds to support such initiatives was discussed. The conversation touched on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and how improved connectivity could facilitate its implementation.

Throughout the discussion, speakers emphasized the need for collaborative, multistakeholder approaches to expanding internet access in Africa. They highlighted the importance of building local capacity and ensuring that technologies like the Internet Backpack align with community needs and contexts. The panel concluded by calling for continued efforts to bridge the digital divide and leverage internet connectivity for sustainable development across Africa.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The Internet Backpack as a solution for providing connectivity to rural and underserved communities, especially in Africa

– The importance of internet access for agriculture, education, healthcare, and economic development in rural areas

– The role of community networks and multi-stakeholder collaboration in expanding internet access

– Technical capabilities and use cases of the Internet Backpack technology

– The vision for local manufacturing and capacity building for internet technologies in Africa

Overall purpose/goal:

The discussion aimed to explore how innovative technologies like the Internet Backpack can help expand internet connectivity in rural Africa, supporting agricultural development, education, and economic growth. The speakers sought to highlight the importance of community-driven approaches and multi-stakeholder collaboration in bridging the digital divide.

Tone:

The tone was largely optimistic and solution-oriented. Speakers were enthusiastic about the potential of the Internet Backpack and similar technologies to make a positive impact. There was also a collaborative spirit, with participants building on each other’s points and emphasizing the need for partnership. Towards the end, the tone became more inspirational as speakers called for collective action to build “the internet we want” and “the Africa we want.”

Speakers

– Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Moderator

– Lee McKnight: Co-inventor of the Internet Backpack technology, Professor

– Jane Asantewaa Appiah-Okyere: Researcher on Internet Backpack use in Ghana

– Jimson Olufuye: Chair of the Advisory Council of Africa ICT Alliance, Principal consultant at Contemporary Consulting

– Mary Uduma: Leader in West Africa IGF

– Kwaku Antwi: Regulatory and policy expert based in Ghana

Additional speakers:

– Rob Loud: Representative from Imcon International, the company that manufactures the Internet Backpack

– Jarell James: Works on internet resilience research

– Poncelet O. Ileleji: Member of the Association of Progressive Communications board

Internet Connectivity for Rural Africa: Exploring Innovative Solutions

This comprehensive discussion, held as part of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), focused on the use of innovative technology, specifically the Internet Backpack, to provide internet connectivity to rural and underserved communities in Africa. The panel, comprising experts in internet governance, policy, and technology, explored how this device could support agricultural development, education, and economic growth across the continent, aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Technology Specifications and Capabilities

Dr. Lee McKnight, co-inventor of the Internet Backpack technology, introduced the device, explaining its ability to provide connectivity through cellular, satellite, and mesh networks, along with sustainable power solutions. Key features include:

– Battery capacity allowing 16 to 20 hours of runtime

– Newer models featuring a double battery design for extended use

– Local cloud capability for data storage and access

– Ability to create a micro cell for cell phone connectivity in areas without cellular signal

– Support for over 35 simultaneous users, surpassing initial expectations

Rob Loud, a representative from Imcon International, the manufacturer of the Internet Backpack, highlighted its versatility, mentioning its use in rescue work during hurricanes and potential applications in monitoring CO2 levels near volcanoes.

Applications and Benefits

The Internet Backpack shows promise in various sectors:

1. Agriculture: Enhancing value chains and market access for farmers

2. Education: Supporting e-learning initiatives

3. Healthcare: Enabling e-health services in remote areas

4. Economic Development: Facilitating participation in the digital economy and e-commerce

5. Disaster Response: Providing connectivity during emergencies

Speakers emphasized that improved internet access could also support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

Implementation and Sustainability

The discussion highlighted several key points for successful implementation:

– Need for collaborative, multistakeholder approaches

– Importance of community ownership and engagement

– Potential use of universal service funds for deployment

– Partnerships between government, private sector, and communities

– Focus on digital skills development alongside connectivity provision

Regulatory and Policy Considerations

Speakers addressed the need for regulatory reforms to enable and support community networks, though specific details were not elaborated upon. The discussion also touched on the importance of aligning technology deployment with local regulatory frameworks.

Long-term Vision and Challenges

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir articulated a vision for African ownership and development of connectivity technologies, emphasizing:

– Building community development and African-based infrastructural capacity

– Local manufacturing and distribution of technologies

– Addressing e-waste management

– Job creation and economic value generation

Challenges were acknowledged, including the significant digital divide (only 27% of African rural communities currently have internet access) and the need for sustained capacity building.

Conclusion

The panel concluded by calling for continued efforts to bridge the digital divide and leverage internet connectivity for sustainable development across Africa. They emphasized the importance of building local capacity and ensuring that technologies like the Internet Backpack align with community needs and contexts.

The discussion demonstrated a high level of consensus on the importance of internet connectivity for rural development and the potential of technologies like the Internet Backpack to address connectivity challenges in remote areas. This shared vision, rooted in the African concept of Ubuntu (interconnectedness), provides a strong foundation for implementing and scaling such solutions across rural Africa.

For those interested in joining this work, more information can be found at agcip.org or africaglobalcommunityinternetprogram.org. The Africa Open Data Internet Research Foundation was also mentioned as a relevant organization in this field.

The Internet Backpack has been deployed or tested in several countries, including Ghana, Costa Rica, and Liberia, demonstrating its potential for wider application across the African continent and beyond.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: What would you call it? Wisdom, are you ready? No sound. Okay, we’re good. Yeah, we’re on channel three. Yeah, we’re on channel three. Yes. Hard to see the screen behind me. Thank you for being here. This is a really important discussion that we’re going to be having today with a number of really, you know, experts who are going to be sharing a bit about the development and the need for internet connectivity, and the impact that the internet connectivity will have on communities across the continent of Africa and beyond. I want to provide some background, and for those who are not familiar, that we’ve been doing at Syracuse University in collaboration with the Africa Open Data Internet Research Foundation, and a nonprofit that we founded collectively, Internet Program. We’ll see in front here for those who are online, you will see this device in front of us. We’ll provide a little background here, though. The Africa We Want vision seeks to make Africa global, global equal, an integrated economy with accessible digital services for government, businesses, and citizens. It emphasizes e-commerce, e-government, and participation in the fourth industrial revolution, particularly for countries across the continent. However, challenges like limited infrastructure, low internet access, where only 27% of African rural communities are applying, technology gaps remain. Strain from climate change, land degradation, water shortages, Ike is really not working too well. Maybe we’ll try the hand mic. No, I need the mic. This is not working. Is this better? Perfect. Alright. Sorry, folks. We are at the Internet Governance Forum, but for some reason we have not figured out how mic technology works, but I think we’ll start over. I want to first welcome folks to this discussion. We’re going to start over as if nothing happened. We’re in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a country and a city that I come to often in a place that I think is opening itself up to the world and I want to first thank the hosts for inviting us here and welcoming us to both this beautiful facility, but also to a country that is doing rapid change and rapidly expanding its access and connections to the world. For those who haven’t been here before, you’re witnessing a fascinating transformation, and I think we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that and thank the hosts for inviting us and welcoming us to this space. So the conversation we’re going to have here today… is largely about what happens when communities don’t have access to Internet, how those communities are able to then rebound and be able to participate in the global economy, what this means for sustainable development, and in particular with a focus on the agricultural sector. We have in front of us this technology called the Internet Backpack, which we’ve presented here at IGF over the last three years in Addis, in Kyoto, and now here in Riyadh, where we’re able to connect communities, rural communities in particular, which is our area of focus, the 27% of whom don’t have access to Internet, don’t have access to the ability to interact and correspond with people around the world, don’t have access to sharing their crops on the global markets, don’t have access to being able to develop their creativity and share it with the world, don’t have access to health care, and don’t have access to basic educational opportunities. We think that’s a fundamental problem here, and the Backpack is one solution that can help facilitate for solving that problem. It can facilitate for the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and it can facilitate the African Union’s own Agenda 2063. We have an amazing group of folks here and online. As you can see, Professor Lee McKnight, Kwaku Antwi, myself, Youssef Abdelkader, who is the moderator, Mama Mary, who is a legend in the Internet governance space across Africa. And we really, really, really, sorry, my brother here from Nigeria, who I’ve gotten to have lunch with this afternoon. And so we’re really here to talk about the ways with which we can try to facilitate for providing connectivity to communities. But I think it’s important for us to ground us in the technology, what its use is, how we’ve developed it over time, and then bring it to the panel to begin to talk about this use case for agriculture. I’m going to open the floor to Dr. Lee McKnight, who is the inventor of this technology, to talk about the Backpack, and then we’ll begin to open it up for the panel discussion. I know some of the panelists have other panels to speak at, so we’ll try to to make sure to get them before they go. And then we’ll open it up to some discussants and for the room to begin the conversation. Without further ado, I’m sure you’re tired of hearing me talk, though you will get used to it for much of the discussion. I’m gonna hand it over to Dr. McKnight. Lee.

Lee McKnight: Thank you, Yusuf, and thank you all for participating and for this opportunity to discuss further our work with the Internet Backpack. And I wanna make clear, I’m not the inventor, I’m a co-inventor. There’s been a team involved over years in refining the technology, developing the technology, and bringing it to the point that it’s at as you’re seeing there in the room. So first, just the quick background. What were the origins? What was the purpose? It was to bring connectivity anywhere, no matter what. Meaning with or without a local power supply, with or without cell infrastructure, we wanted to make it possible to connect. Originally, this was a National Science Foundation supported research effort. Eventually, this combination of technologies, and I’ll get to that in just a second, was urgently requested by the Goma Volcano Observatory in the Democratic Republic of Congo when we were literally had just exhibited it as a proof of concept or prototype. And they were saying they needed it for real. And we’re saying, we’re not ready. And say, no, no, we don’t care. We want it right now. And we brought it out of the lab. That was seven years ago. And over the last seven years, the technology has been refined. And from what I’m aware of, it’s in at least a dozen countries being used for a variety of purposes. Well, first, the background on the technology, it’s not just a connectivity tool. It’s also designed. as a mini microgrid, meaning sustainable power and energy is a key part of the design. Since we can wait for out in rural Africa or if we’re in a disaster zone, we can’t count on access to electricity or a utility grid. So in the pack itself, there’s a foldable solar panel, there’s, depending on the model, one or two batteries, and there’s a number of different devices then that can be with the solar panel, you can recharge everything, maintain connectivity indefinitely without access to a utility grid. Of course, it’s easier to plug it in and recharge everything if power is available. So you can connect via cellular network to about 10 kilometers away from the nearest cell tower. So if you’re even in a location where your phone says there’s no bars and there’s no access, the pack has a more powerful device inside it called a cradle point router, which can pick up a signal and then act like a booster and now create a Wi-Fi hotspot around the pack itself. There’s also a satellite router, satellite internet access, so you can create a shared connectivity. And there’s also a mesh network, radio network device called the Beartooth that can create, even if there’s no access to cellular network, even if you’re not using the satellite, you can essentially make, do a point-to-point connection and enable like a walkie-talkie, people to talk over several kilometers, perhaps again in its circumstances in which there could be emergency circumstances. So the idea is satellite, cellular. Wi-Fi, off-grid mesh networking with energy sustainably. There’s one more aspect to mention here, which is software. And that’s what was patented in 2022 for essentially reducing the amount of bandwidth used. Again, obviously, if we’re out in remote Africa, all the bandwidth is precious, right? It’s a precious resource. So we don’t want to waste it. So we don’t waste it. We use it more efficiently with something we called edgeware from our years of research. And that’s packaged together is what the backpack constitutes. And I should mention one more aspect. What we’re mainly doing is connecting to cloud services from, again, anywhere on the planet, including remote Africa. And the pack itself is then managed from those cloud services. So you don’t need any special skills to operate it. If you can, again, operate a cell phone, you can become an internet backpack operator. That’s another design consideration. We wanted to make this easy and simple to use, portable, fast to set up within minutes. You can get this up and going anywhere across Africa. And now we get to the use cases where really that’s the discussion today here in whether it’s for, I said, like emergency monitoring, CO2 monitoring of the volcanoes or so. Essentially, now if we take those sensors, not for CO2 monitoring, but monitoring crops and fields or internet of things, IOT type resources, that’s where the backpack can act essentially as a connectivity hub to support farmers in Africa and other communities. in providing access and monitoring to agricultural resources over time. Again, I don’t want to take up too much time. I think I’ve sort of laid out what the combination of technologies does and where it fits in as, again, as a connectivity hub for digital transformation of agriculture and trade across Africa, you know, going forward, potentially. It’s not magic. It’s just a backpack. But it has a role to play where connectivity is limited. And that includes many communities, unfortunately, across Africa. Thank you.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Thank you, Dr. McNight. I’m going to jump to our esteemed colleague here to my right, only because I know that you have another panel. Mama Mary, you’re going to be quickly following after, because you’re, as we would say, the young folks would say you’re an OG. You’re an original. You are the matriarch of West Africa IGF. And so I’m going to quickly follow with you after. So just be prepared. But Dr. Olufi, I got you. Don’t worry, brother. I remember my Nigerian brother from Abuja. You know, your work has really been centered around making sure that the private sector has been engaged both in the discussions on governance, but also the responsibilities for facilitating for sustainable development. At our quick lunch break, which, by the way, we didn’t actually meet and know that we were going to be on this panel at lunch. So fate would have it that we were sitting together. At your lunch break, you raised the prospects of the Africa Free Trade Agreement and the way with which connectivity could help to facilitate for this really important endeavor to really facilitate for the development of an interconnected Africa. What role do you see the private sector playing in this and how does internet connectivity fare in this as a kind of facilitator for that trade system that you were talking about at lunch?

Jimson Olufuye: Thank you very much, Professor Yusuf. I want to also thank my friend, the president of the Open Data Foundation. Wisdom, thank you for the invitation. And I also say plus one to your gracious commendation of the government of Saudi Arabia for hosting us. It’s really great. And of course to thank Dr. McKnight for that wonderful presentation. My name again is Jameson Olufoye. I happen to be the chair of the Advisory Council of Africa ICT Alliance. It’s an alliance of more than 40 countries in Africa made up of ICT associations, companies, and individual stakeholders. And we do advocacy, engaging with government to fast-tracking the issue of connectivity, the issue of prosperity, and the achievement of the sustainable development goals. In my private life, I happen to be the principal consultant on to contemporary consulting. So we’re into digitalization. We build data centers and we are in the forefront of cyber security awareness and assessment and research. So this presentation is so germane, so appropriate in that because when I read the concept note, it talks about it relates to the sustainable development goal, removing hunger, enabling prosperity, and ensuring there’s inclusive participation in the global digital economy, and in particular agriculture. So I was really thrilled to be here to participate in the panel. You know, the United Nations Commission for Science and Technology, sorry, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, they commissioned a report That report reflected a connection between internet penetration and GDP per capita. So a 10% increase in internet penetration using devices like these will enable up to 8.2% increase in GDP per capita. So it is substantive that we boost our internet connectivity, it’s very, very important. And right now, even in Nigeria, we just about, we are 75% connected, you know, by the time we did SIM number validation, it reduced to 61%. So we see quite a chunk of our people not yet connected or active. So they are in the rural areas, okay. So we need to come up with innovation on how to reach them. And especially our farmlands, our farmers are in the interior, basically. So this kind of device is one of those game changers, okay, that could help. So from the private sector perspective, based on our advocacy, because we believe there should be increased collaboration, okay, and for government, private sector, civil society, academic and technical community to come together to see how they can fulfill or achieve the goal of 100% connectivity. And we can recall in September, the United Nations signed this pact for the future. And it has global data compact right there. And that is talking about bridging the digital divide, okay. One of the objectives, one objective is bridging the digital divides. Number two is to ensure that everybody, everyone in the world benefits from digital economy, okay. And number three, human rights, four, talking about data governance, and number five, talking about using of AI, okay, for good. So we in the private sector, we bought into this, we are part of it, and we committed to pushing forward tools like this, okay, innovative products like these, maybe through pilot activity, through proof of concept, and through direct intervention, so that more people can be absorbed, more people can participate, especially the farmers. Now we have the African Continental Free Trade Zone, which is a powerful agreement by government. It is a beautiful one, African government have done very well, really. But we now need to ensure our people benefit from this agreement, and these are part of the framework or tools that could make that possible. And we need to do a lot of capacitation, capacity development need to be pushed forward, and this is part of capacity development anyway, which is commendable, and I believe the recording can be sent around to many other stakeholders so that they can get to be capacitated about what is available. And so, apart from the capacity development, there has to be regulatory framework in terms of policies to say, okay, let us all agree that we need to push things like this, and connect with the underserved areas. And the number of groups, in that regard, not only private sector, other groups need to be brought in. We must not neglect any group at all. In fact, we have this principle called the Net Mundial Principle, which was agreed to in April this year, and it talks about meaningful participation. It also talks about meaningful connectivity. It also talks about getting everybody to be involved. Okay, so we believe in. The private sector, we believe so much in that. And that is why I’m here today. That’s why we believe that we must continue to engage. We engage in Nigeria, we engage across Africa, and we will continue to engage worldwide. I will continue to engage because it’s something good. Once our people are connected, it will also benefit the private sector, seriously. Because our interest is that there is more markets, more demand for our product. Because once people are connected, there will be demand for our services, for our apps, and what have you. So I hope I’ll be able to talk about those, or answer your question.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: You did it actually quite comprehensively, as I expected you would. And so I appreciate you both laying out the way with which collaborative ecosystems help to facilitate for really important partnerships that will drive the growth and development. And you really beautifully connected to the way with which the free trade zone is really helping to kind of be a next stage that in the role that the internet will have to be an accelerant of that. You know, we have continued to talk about internet governance and centered the backpack as a part of that conversation. And in West Africa IGF, there’s always been this culture of recognizing that no one’s left behind, especially rural communities. I think as Dr. McKnight said earlier, we’ve initially begun as like an emergency response process, this backpack that has evolved to other use cases, including education. And in the educational use cases that we’ve seen in Ghana and Costa Rica, in Liberia and elsewhere, we’ve seen a significant increase for our research in the involvement of girls and boys in schools. I mean, in Ghana, we’ve been able to identify that for a period of time, girls weren’t participating in school. And once we brought the backpack through the really important research of a, I guess, Dr. Jane, who is no longer a doctor. a student, but now Dr. Jane, who is a part of the African Community Internet Program, we’ve been able to see that bringing the backpack to her village in Ghana, her rural village in Ghana, was first able to provide the ability for teachers to learn how to use the Internet, how to access the Internet, then teach their students how to do research on the Internet. But the interesting effect was the increased involvement of boys and girls. So given the large work that you’ve had in building the future generation of Internet users across Africa, but particularly in West Africa, and giving the roles that you’ve played in helping to make sure that no one’s left behind, why is this so important at this moment and what’s the effect that this will have on rural communities beyond just education and emergency response and inclusive of agriculture?

Jane Asantewaa Appiah-Okyere: Okay, thank you very much for giving me the floor, and thank you Wisdom for inviting me. And I want to lend my voice to thanking the government of Saudi Arabia for such a great outing for us, and we can’t say thank you enough for them. For me, this is a passion, a passion in the sense that my advocacy is for digital justice for my community, whether it’s in Zambia, I mean in Gambia, or in Burkina Faso, or in Nigeria. We want the communities to be connected, and I think there’s a solution here that I’m looking at. The fact that I may not need electricity to get my people connected is a plus, and something we should embrace with all our hearts and all our minds. I know that the community needs, or each of the communities, they need e-learning. You know what happened during the COVID and some were cut off from education because they didn’t have connectivity. So with this, I think we would be able to surmount that challenge we had during the COVID. We also look at the e-health would also be part of the services or the connectivity that will help the community. And now we have food crisis in West Africa. Since after the COVID, we have been having food crisis and the terrorism in West Africa has not helped. So we believe that with this, with agriculture, using this device would also help us in agriculture, distributing of seedlings to our rural communities who are the mainstay of the agri sector of our economy. So I know that it will help us develop policies. When we develop agri policies, we’ll be able to disseminate into the interior so that they can also benefit from what the government is doing. It is also going to help in the e-government. E-government, we want to know what our government is saying. If government is saying, is rolling out new policies, our people in the rural area will be able to benefit and know about it and key into it and then be part of the process. Dr. Jameson said something about the digital economy. Digital economy would also include the agri-economy. And when our agri-economy is digitalized, we’ll find out that we’ll be able to also contribute to the digital economy. GDP of the country. So for me, and I belong to a group in Nigeria, the advisory group for community networks. And this is a big solution for us. Log and play, drop anywhere, any community. The first time I mentioned this to my group, some of them were willing to, oh, let’s snap it up and get, how much is it going to cost? We want to drop it in our community. We want our community to be connected. We want our people to know, to benefit from what internet provides. So for us, it’s something that we are very passionate about. And we think that it can bring quick solution for community networks. And so working with other stakeholders that are community network stakeholders, for instance, the ISOC of this world, the government, whether a regulator or policymaker, that is interested in community networks. Yes, in 20, I think it was 2019 or, Nigeria, you could think that Nigeria is covered because we have operators that will give us connectivity. But it was spotted that there are so many communities in Nigeria where you don’t have the dial tone. So you don’t have the dial tone, and you don’t have connectivity. You don’t have power. So many of them, there were over 300 communities yet to be covered. So this could be a game changer to drop this in those communities. And they will receive their own digital justice by getting connected to have their e-learning, to have their e-health, to have their e-agriculture, to have the e-government, and to have e-regulation. that there are regulations coming out, then they will have meaningful connectivity, just as he mentioned. It could also bring meaningful connectivity to our communities. So with this, would be able to leverage on, you know, sustainability of the community networks. You know, sometimes you need to build the, what’s it called? The mesh or the technology around connecting. But this one is that you is on your backpack and you get to know where in the desert, in the Niger Delta, where there are, there are, what’s it called? Where you have the water log areas that you don’t have land to even connect. There are some of our communities, you have to, this is water and water, you just put bench or bridge to walk into your house. You have to build your house to a point, then you, I mean, raise it up for you to be able to put a shelter over yourself. So it is doable, is something that will bring connectivity to such areas. And very difficult areas to access, where the commercial operators will not reach, this will reach, would look at strategies to make it happen. It’s either PPP with the business people with the afficted, okay, because they are the public sector, I mean, private sector people, alliance with our community themselves. Because if you bring this to a community and show them, just like we have testified of Ghana, you will see the enthusiasm and the excitement that will come, oh, we can access the internet with this. And there’s hunger for data. rural area as well, so they could also connect and access the internet, do even research and do education. One of the women that is in the advisory committee said that she refused to go to the university. She’s now a doctor, she did everything online. So if somebody in my village or in my community could get internet access, could do his education or higher education and it’s cheaper for instance. And so those are things that we know that this revolutionary equipment can bring to our community. So we are passionate about it and we are interested in making sure that our community gets connected. Thank you.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: That was beautiful, Dr. Jimson.

Jimson Olufuye: Yes, so maybe after this quick statement I’ll have to join another session. What I want to, I’ve mentioned it briefly before, what I want to conclude with is that it’s very important we get the community to own this. It’s going to go into underserved areas. We consult with, we need to engage them thoroughly in terms of sustainability of the product and safety and security. And then not only that, in terms of regulation, we need to be consulted. Because at the local level, when it comes to multi-stakeholder engagement, it’s bottom-up. So this will help consultation at the local level. So I believe wisdom is good at that, bottom-up engagement process. So this will be good. The community needs to be so… So that even IGF, they’ll be watching IGF in the future through this. So we need to demonstrate that use cases that, look, this is what we’re talking about. Those in the remote, far-flung areas, they are connected because of this. So see that feedback at the next IGF in Norway. Thank you very much.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Thank you. Thank you. Two comments I want to make, and then we’ll go to Dr. Bignay for a question, because I think Mama Mary and Dr. Jimson, and thank you for being here. We appreciate you. We’ll keep in touch for sure. Thank you. Mama Mary, really, it’s as if you were, like, in my brain. I don’t know if there’s a connectivity happening there. There’s a different kind of connectivity. But you really did speak to a number of things that we are actively having conversations about in ACIP. And so what we’ve observed in our research, where we deployed the backpack through grant funding in Costa Rica, and a rural community in the rainforest, when the community, when the funding dried, and, you know, we, because we were able to do the research, excuse me. I’ll get to that in a second. When the funding dried, and, again, we were able to deploy the backpack, but, you know, the backpack will use either, through a high-powered antenna, will connect to a cellular tower, or it connect to satellite, and, obviously, satellite data is more expensive. The community then pooled their resources, which was quite beautiful. Talking to the ownership, the community said, hey, like, we want to make sure our kids and our communities are still able to access the Internet. And because the backpack, when it connects to cellular, is able to use SIM cards, you can imagine now that maybe one person can’t afford a SIM data plan, but when it’s shared across 100 families, that becomes affordable and sustainable, and we didn’t expect that communities would then pool those resources together. We didn’t expect that the community would then pool those resources together. Communities will both find value in this and then say, hey, let’s collectively work to ensure that we can continue to provide this to our communities. And that’s the kind of interesting things that we’ve begun to observe. On the regulatory framework side, a part of the way with which we’ve had discussions about funding these sorts of experiences beyond grants are important and aid funding is necessary but it’s not sustainable necessarily, and they’re helpful to begin to go beyond proof of concept but to begin to kind of build the frameworks to establish this as a proper intermediary. But as we talked about, governments have laws that develop regulations of which typically internet service providers have to provide a percentage of the funds that they would be able to enable communities who are not commercially viable to provide access to. Those are typically called universal access funds or universal service funds. Many countries have universal service and universal access funds and it’s not economically feasible often to be able to still develop infrastructure. When a government has to choose between do I provide water sanitation or do I provide internet access, it’s not a very difficult choice to make. And so what we found is an untapped resource are universal access funds. Kenya, for instance, has $100 million in universal access funds. It is not feasible for Kenya to build fiber optic cables and internet infrastructure because that will be tens, in fact, hundreds of millions of dollars but it may be feasible to leverage this technology. Dr. McKnight, can you speak to that a little bit if you’re still here about the ways with which and then incorporate the cost of the backpack for a question here in the auditorium about the way with which we’ve begun to advocate for the utilization of universal service and universal access funds. What are those and why are they necessary and important?

Lee McKnight: Thank you very much. And again, thank you for including me in this important conversation. So first, in general, universal service programs have been around, you know, going for quite some time in North America, in Western Europe, for building out rural connectivity many, many decades ago. Now, if we take those same kinds of programs, as you mentioned, Yusuf, in African nations, where they exist, the challenges for the per capita income in a rural area, where the government would have, say, Kenya, let’s focus on Kenya for a moment, traditional telecommunications infrastructure, we’re not talking hundreds of millions, we’re talking billions of dollars for bringing full cell tower fiber optics into all parts of rural Africa. So it’s just not practical or feasible. So those funds sit there, essentially, not fully utilized, because the government has to look at it honestly, and say, okay, even if we put this cell tower out here, it’s going to sort of rot and fall apart, because the local income levels are not going to be able to sustain the maintenance and operation of this infrastructure over time. So instead, now, let’s look at the backpack. In the case where we are using cellular networks, essentially, we’re sharing the same amount of bandwidth as one cell phone, now across a community. So we’re subdividing, like you do the arithmetic, now it’s 35 people or 100 people, it’s a community that’s now sharing one cellular network. And for connectivity, just over time, with this clever bandwidth management capabilities and I’ll give a shout out to Rob Loud and Tim Kelly of Imcon International here who are listening in on the Zoom, the firm that makes the pack and that filed the patent on it, on that capability. So now we do the math. Whatever it costs for your data plan, now you divide it by 30 and that’s the cost for a community. The design parameter we were thinking of originally was like 25 people, but in the case of Ghana that we talked about, we had up to 35 people simultaneously using one, what’s essentially like a one cell line to maintain decent internet connectivity. So the economics work out and we’re still at an early stages. I know the firm, you could bring the cost of the pack down, but the first level, the real issue is the cost of the data over time and to maintain connectivity as you gave that example, Yusuf, of the community in Costa Rica that said, hey, we’re not going to wait for government programs to come along and help figure out how to help us. We’re going to help ourselves. So there’s some aspect of that where it could be self-help of communities. It could be a mixture where there is some business of some scale in the area and they’re saying we’ll pitch in some amount because this is going to benefit us. And now we get to the universal service programs themselves, I think, and community networks that Mama Mary spoke of. That’s really the connection there. If we now have government programs that support and permit community networks, this is essentially a special case of a kind of starter community network that maybe perhaps could build out more additional infrastructure over time beyond the backpack itself. So regulatory reform to enable or permit community networks is a key step. Now, going back to the economics itself, there’s different models of the PAC. The latest model comes with something called the Starlink Mini, which is more expensive than a cell line, but it’s much cheaper satellite data than the current model, the model that you have there in the room, which does work everywhere. But if you have to use a satellite, I think it’s prohibitively expensive without some government support in the most remote communities. The PAC itself, again, I’m not the professor, I’m not the sales guy, I’m not trying to sell anybody anything other than I agree, it’s important for connecting these communities. But the PACs can cost, right now, one model called the Light Internet Backpack is $12,000 US, the other model is $20,000, which is the fully equipped one with warranty and a year data plan, and so on. This is not affordable for one rural community on its own currently, but I should also mention there’s lease financing, so you wouldn’t have to come up with that money upfront. Essentially, once this got to some scale, banks, finance companies would support and essentially provide the PAC, and then they would have to pay over a three-year time period. Let’s say that in the case of the $12,000, you have to have 4,000, then 4,000, and then $4,000 over three years and amortize it over that period. Or in the case of the fully equipped model, that would be $6,600 roughly per year for three years to pay for the cost of the infrastructure. without having to pay for that all up front. So that’s the kind of business model where it’s for, what’s interesting to me was how quickly a lease finance company said, yeah, we could send, you can send this pack anywhere in Africa and we’ll provide the financings for it. So you don’t have to come up with that money up front. I say, really, you would do that? And I think Rob on the Zoom could say, yeah, they really would, which is pretty amazing to me. So one aspect to then mention here is, okay, what about if something breaks? And again, we’re being small and portable and going anywhere. The whole thing is kind of amazingly robust and reliable from our experience over the last six years. But still, if something does go wrong, we’ve had this actually in the Ghana case that the cradle point router I mentioned went bad. Okay, well, guess what? The cradle point took it back, shipped in another one to that remote community in Ghana. They say, all right, great. Now, final aspect to mention here is sort of lifecycle and e-waste, which we’ve had from discussions in other IGFs with parliamentarians. Our rural Africa doesn’t wanna be left with all the junk. So that’s something to be thinking about is the ultimate recycling and as equipment wears out. And that’s kind of the beyond the scope of what I’m ready to say much more about other than to say we recognize that and that can be accounted for as well. Hope that helps and was what you were looking for Yusuf.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Yeah, that was very helpful. We’ll take two more of the folks here so that we can begin to open up the conversation to the folks on the floor. Kwaku Antwi, who is a brilliant regulatory policy expert based in Ghana, a true Pan-Africanist in his heart and in his practice and in his ethos is here with us as well as a major leader here in the Africa. Really, we’ve gone from Africa community out of the global community internet program. I would be remiss if we didn’t mention one of the developers of the software, a gentleman, Elil Matai, who is himself from the Democratic Republic of Congo. And then the development that expanded from DRC to Haiti, again, in a Pan-African spirit that continues. to be developed. You know, as a Pan-African, I think it would be remiss again if I didn’t mention that we are constantly looking at the ways with which we can build interconnectedness across our communities, both in the diaspora and on the continent. And I’m personally a part of this work because of that kind of long-term goal. But Kwaku, I wanted to pull you in here, given your both regulatory and policy expertise. Excuse me, given your regulatory and policy expertise, I wanted to bring you in here to talk a little bit about the rural communities in particular, the agricultural kind of aspects here that I think Dr. Mignogna alluded to earlier on, that would help deal with the IOT aspects, that would help facilitate for the ability for sensors and the regulatory regimes that are necessary to bring that online. Kwaku, would you please share with us a little bit of your perspective here? And you’ve got to unmute yourself. If you’re all back there, I can unmute Kwaku onto you.

Kwaku Antwi: All right. Thanks. Thanks. Yusuf, can you hear me? Yes, you’re coming in. Yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you so much for hosting me, and I’m glad to be part of the session. So yes, I’m building up on the point in terms of agriculture and the rural IOT and other allied services. From the previous discussions, we’ve seen that the connectivity is key, but another aspect which is key that we’ve seen so far, and this is across Africa, is in terms of being able to utilize the technology for monitoring and in terms of the produce itself, the agriculture produce itself in terms of climate, in terms of temperatures, and in terms of agriculture planting information. But most importantly, after having produced the agriculture produce. The value chain marketing, as well as the agricultural business value chain is one thing which is quite important that the internet connectivity is spawning. So quite recently, most across Africa, we are seeing that not just the traditional agricultural produce itself is being promoted, but also the value chain in terms of business. And I know that most African communities where now the social media is prevalent, we see a lot more people marketing their produce online through social media applications, as well as through intermediate businesses and also personal to personal. But why is this so important? We see that the underlying technologies of internet connectivity of the backpack, which is climate compliant, as well as community integrative, helps the communities themselves to operate, as well as the farmers themselves to be able to be in touch with what happens most of the times with what we call agricultural extension services. And this helps both the government in terms of the regulatory aspect in being able to help the farmers to monitor through agricultural extension services, when to apply fertilizers, when time is up for veterinary services, and to be able to have a kind of a cyclical application of communication updates. And this is also helps another aspect, which is so important in the whole ecosystem in terms of data. And not just for the data farmers themselves are able to keep, but they’re also able to get feedback. and even help research and develop the community. So I think one other aspect that we have always championed is the skills aspect. Farmers are skilled in being able to plant, being able to reap, being able to harvest, but this skills aspect also comes with the technology equipping them with digital skills. And these digital skills, an aspect of the internet backpack is being able to have a local cloud, which now becomes a kind of a repository of information where not just the farmers are able to access, but also the communities and themselves, other people to be able to learn. So I think this important aspect in connecting from the planting, from the marketing, from the value chain, not just for individual African countries, but also across the continent. Today, I’ll give an example where in Ghana, or in the West African space, one of our major consumption produces tomatoes. And we market a lot, and especially in Ghana, we get most of our tomatoes from neighboring Burkina Faso. And whenever there are shortages or the discussions and even marketing aspect, there are people who will tell you, you can get it from so-and-so market or you can get it from so-and-so market. So, I mean, in helping the African free trade area that we’ve agreed to in Africa, these are the aspects which broadens the discussions based on the technologies and also boosting from the agriculture to the final consumer, how we’ll be able to help and also grow the policy space in the regulatory aspect. Thank you, Yusef.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: And I just want to drop the mic in the co-op. That was just brilliant in the way that she connected issues together and was able to facilitate for both understanding the legal image. Uh, the regulatory frameworks will help to these mics, uh, not just to be able to, uh, you know, share their crop or kind of, uh, commercialize their product to trade on global markets, but also to help in data collection and kind of making sure that, uh, we’re better able to produce more efficiently, more effectively in a way that’s climate resilient. I want to bring in our colleague Ponslet here online. Um, who’s from Jocolo labs. Um, and to kind of share here and, and, and add to the discussion and then we’ll open it up to the floor for folks to kind of engage in the conversation. We, we really are, um, uh, a firm believer. And in fact, our white paper is called digitalizing the grassroots where we’re trying to build from the ground up, uh, and not from the top bottom. And so that a part of that is in this community here. So we want to make sure that we are collaborating and having open dialogue with not just the experts and the folks here, but your expertise and, and making sure we facilitate it for that discussion. Uh, so Ponslet, please join us, um, and, and add to your intervention for this discussion.

AUDIENCE: Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Sure. Um, one thing I will say, um, um, good morning. Good afternoon folks is, um, I’m part of a network organization called the association of progressive communication, APC.org of which I sit currently on the board, and one of the things we promote is community networks, I believe in increasing access, um, what African farmers need is access, you know, to be able to explore the various value chain of agriculture that exists. Um, we are, we are still very low on broadband. But one way to go about it is creation of community networks, and we have not really embraced it well. We have some parts of the continent doing it. We have some other parts of the continent not doing it very properly. And I believe that working with our telcos, we have to operate within the spirit of the multistakeholderism of internet governments, whereby all partners have to be on board, whether they are regulatory, whether they are academia, and say, OK, we are coming together to see how, through our various universal access policies, whether they exist or they don’t exist, or through engagement with telcos and broadband providers, we are able to set up community networks where our rural-based farmers can be able to benefit from these community networks and empower them with digital skills. Because they need these digital skills to be able to use technology to sell their products. It’s not about just processing stuff. We have also seen the impact artificial intelligence is playing in mitigating climatic problems. And that is something farmers can benefit if they have the required digital skills. So I’m a big advocate of community networks, in line with what the Association of Progressive Communications have been trying to do with local networks, and I will encourage us in our own various communities to try to work within a multistakeholder framework to set up community networks in rural areas. It’s easy saying that, OK, there’s no broadband here, there’s no broadband there. Over 60% of the continent is still not on broadband. But what are we doing about it? And it has to be a collective approach. It has to be bringing the community together. Joko means togetherness, so we always believe in this philosophy, you know, and getting the required digital literacy skills to be given to people. I’ll give you an example to end with what we did in a rural community in Gambia, in the North Bank region. We worked with horticultural women, horticultural farmers to get them online. People were saying they were not educated, but all of them had smartphones. So we invited these women with their daughters. We did the training over the weekend. We invited these women with their daughters to attend the training and then their daughters were helping support them in using social media and using online platforms. And with no time, daughters and mothers working together, all these women were able to start selling their vegetables online, you know. So we have to know that all girls are going to school. All these girls have mothers. Most of them work in the rural areas. Thank you very much.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: No, thank you. Again, why we feel so passionate about the role that internet connectivity can have in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and achieving African Union’s future that we want, Agenda 2063, for making sure that there’s gender parity and gender equity, for making sure that there’s economic mobility. It’s not a magic bullet. It’s not a magic wand. It’s not going to solve all the problems and all the crises, but as an accelerant, as a facilitator, it helps to drive in that direction. I promised that I would open the floor. We have about half an hour for discussion. I really, really want us to have a discussion. I could continue. I’m a professor, so I could probably talk all day long. I’d be happy to do that, but I really think it’s valuable and most valuable for us to engage in discussion amongst and with each other. There’s a mic here, so please introduce yourself, give a little background on who you are, and we’ll get into discussion.

Jarell James: Hey. My name is Jarell James. I work on internet resilience research myself. I already know of your guys’ work because I already know you guys. Nice to see you again, Dr. Lee, Dr. McKnight, and Yousef. I really enjoyed this discussion. I had not gotten to see your hardware. You know, last year you guys spoke about the hardware, but I didn’t get to see it. And it seems like a lot of development has been done on it. I actually have a couple questions for Mr. McKnight and then one for both of you that kind of ties together. What is the watt-hour capacity of the battery that powers it? And so, to say, does it go live for 40 hours? And what’s the draw from the antennas and the connectivity hardware itself? Is it 12 volts type stuff? And then from your sides of the perspective here, is there much to be done when it comes to teaching these communities themselves how to build battery-based connectivity hardware? I mean, I myself work on battery-based connectivity hardware, and this has been kind of a question in my mind is, how can we not have to always, like, ship the…

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Before you jump in, I want to just answer that question quickly, and Mama Mary, I’ll let you jump in, and then we’ll get to Lee. Our vision is not for us to continue to… I love Rob, and I love the folks at Incon, and I’m happy that they’re doing great humanitarian work. Really, oftentimes, no profit value for them. Like, this is a technology of the very many technologies that they offer as a company. But really, we do want to have a community development, African-based infrastructural capacity building institute to be able to build these technologies, to distribute them across the continent, to deal with the e-waste and recycling of that, to develop the capacity, the jobs, the economic value. viability. The vision is to go in that direction. We’re not there yet today, but that is the long-term, the middle to long-term vision of what we’re trying to endeavor and to achieve. I’m not a fan, and I don’t think any of us are a fan of like, you know, the way with which the current global development aid system operates, and we’re not trying to be a facilitator for that kind of neocolonialist approach. I’m just going to call a spade a spade. I’m not going to jump around it. I’m just going to be straight up with you. I can’t do anything but talk in particular to talk, because we’re already rooted in understanding pan-Africanism. We’ll run 16 to 20 hours on a battery load.

Rob Loud: Dr. McKnight didn’t hit on the battery that was one of the things we really planned on was that it does have AC and DC power, both input and output, but depending where you’re at, what type of situation you are, you can not only power our devices, you could power other devices with it. For instance, we were in a country in Liberia several years ago doing some things, and the building that was hosting us ran out of power, so the PAC was able to run our equipment, their monitors and computers, as well as fans for the room. There was thought put into this to really make it a useful solution, not just to power one device. Like I said, I would give it all day, and Dr. Lee also mentioned that some of the newer PACs have a double battery design, which was done on purpose as opposed to giving one battery a larger charge. This way, one battery can be in use and the secondary battery can always be charged, so that way you could have a continuous 24-hour setup if necessary.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Thank you very much for up there. Kwaku, we want to make sure to bring you in here to talk about, well, I mean, you can talk about anything you want to talk about at this stage, but please jump in, Kwaku.

Kwaku Antwi: Thanks. Thanks, Yusuf. So, yes, I think the ultimate aim that we have all talked about is, one, being able to deploy the device to the community, because the benefits are enormous. Two, the skills development, which my brother constantly talked about, that we see that is evident, that the skills development and even the cascading effect of the skills development is something that is spurred by having the technology itself. And the issue about local context, which is key in Africa, is something that we’ve seen the effects happening. Over the last few years that we’ve seen the improvement in internet connectivity or the access to internet connectivity, and also the dual effect of having the applications and also the devices, we’ve seen a lot more of African content being uploaded, a lot more African content being used across platforms because of the power of internet connectivity. And not just for entertainment purposes, but it is cascading across the various industries from the start of the COVID pandemic, and this has gone in ways which I think, if we continue, will go. I’ll give you a good example with the Ghanaian one. So, the Ghanaian one initially started from a library when Dr. James’ research started, and we’re talking about use cases and also the cascading effect. What happened was that at a point in time, it was being, for safety purposes, the device was being taken to a police station. The police at the station also now were able to even operate it or connect. Then there was a nursing training institution, which was across from where the police station was. And they also were talking about internet connectivity, and they were also able to connect to the device. What am I talking about? Having the internet connected, we’re talking about it all day long, but at the end of the day, we want to be able to see that the device and the connection is there. The content which we talk about can be both on the local cloud, as we were talking about, because the internet backpack has that capacity to have a local cloud, which you don’t necessarily need to connect to the internet, but just connect to a local cloud to be able to use it. And people will now create content to be able to be accessed. The use cases are so enormous that, I mean, at the end of the day, our people will be able to benefit. And then that multi-stakeholder collaboration and all of us who are in the communities who are looking at the grounds up or the grassroots building up will be able to improve the internet connectivity

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: and help us. So I think what we are also aiming at totally is that it’s more of a collaboration where we are seeing that we’re complementing what is already existing. We are having the various alliances formed, but most importantly, connection to the internet is what is going to drive what we are looking at. And we pray for all the support that we need so that we can be able to move this forward where the Africa We Want 2063 agenda is being able to be achieved. And the commerce or the economic aspect of the African free continental travel area. we’re able to improve that so that true internet connectivity, trade, content, improvement of our communities will be achieved.

Kwaku Antwi: Thank you. You’re safe.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Thank you. Any other questions from folks here in the auditorium? Please.

AUDIENCE: My name is Keeks, also working with Jarrell on the research firm. More of a technical question, but I was curious the number of unique cell phones that can be either connecting or passing traffic between each of the packs, and then the gross, I guess, traffic. Like if you hit that max capacity, let’s say it’s 50 or 100 cell phones, like how fast is the traffic per cell phone? Like is it five megabits per second that each phone can access? Is there anything that can be, I guess, built or handled on the software side to introduce like throttling? Basically, just like understanding a little bit without going too much on the technical details around how many cell phones can be connected, how fast of a connection each cell phone would experience. Thank you.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Let me add to that question, if Lee and Rob can talk a bit about what it was designed to do and what we’re seeing happening in the field. Because what it is designed to do, we’ve actually surpassed that substantially in the field in Ghana, and the research that we’ve done there shows that. Lee, if you want to take that and Rob as well.

Lee McKnight: Sure. Thanks. Thanks for the question. The design parameter was we were looking to have 25 simultaneous users and up to 250 devices. As Yusuf just mentioned, in the field in Ghana, we have records. from Dr. Jane’s doctoral thesis work of hitting over 35 simultaneous users connecting with again adequate bandwidth. What’s the definition of adequate? I can’t say, but 35 teachers we can say we’re able to connect, we’re able to do their work and learn together about digital skills in Ghana. Now the throttling you mentioned is kind of you know we would might call it bandwidth management but that’s what I’m talking about for the patent is this what was awarded in 2022 is this way to sort of actively manage the bandwidth so more simultaneous users. So again up to 250 devices up to 25 people was what we set out for and what we’ve experienced and documented is over 35 and Rob do you have something to add but about the question?

Rob Loud: Here the current modeling with and we’ll go with if we have a larger amount of bandwidth versus a small satellite it can handle up to about a hundred and twenty connections simultaneously. Now when you have one ingress point it it can go a lot of different ways. What I try to remind people when they’re using the internet or so on and I’m sure all of you are aware of this you know just because I’m looking at my device and reading a website doesn’t mean I’m actively accessing at that second and so what our near part of patent is called a narrow bandwidth utilization and what we do is allow the traffic to reprioritize so if we want to make sure emails are the most prominent or a specific website that has that ability and whoever is managing the pack has the ability to set for all those users say you want the video feeds to only be a at a 720 or maybe less, as opposed to a high definition feed. So it can allow that. It can take audio and change it from 128 bit down to 64, 32. And that happens up in the cloud on our side. But it allows the individual user or the pack manager to decide those things to better utilize it. Now, to answer the question what we’ve seen, it all depends on the amount of bandwidth available. So if you’re on the satellite, for instance, you’re not going to get the same throughput that you would with an active cellular connection or a star link. But with the star links and the 5G networks, we’ve seen anywhere total bandwidth running up over 200 megabits a second. Per user, they were still pulling 10 and 12. We’ve had multiple concurrent video sessions going on at once. So it’s kind of a large question to answer, because it depends on the location of what the ingress point of the internet is. And so that’s what we try to do, is make sure that that user experience is actually the best that it can be, given what access may be available at that particular moment. That answers it nicely.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: And thank you for that, Rob and Lee. And please let me, based on Dr. Jane’s gradual thesis, she talked about surpassing the number of devices. What was that number or that threshold that she surpassed, Lee?

Lee McKnight: The number of users was the one that I know she surpassed, which was we designed it to meet 25. That was the original parameter. Obviously, Rob’s with star link, that’s gone further. But she had up to 35 simultaneous users connected. And again, as Rob noted, if we were talking about internet of things, like if the agricultural use case when we’re talking about sensor networks. we we expect it to be able to connect up to 250 devices simultaneously um for which is we haven’t actually hit that number in the field for real i think right rob uh just yet um but but if in principle if you’re talking about a low bandwidth sensor network connectivity for agricultural use it could be hundreds of farmers many hundreds of farmers could be connected simultaneously within a community so we haven’t hit that parameter yet because we haven’t had that particular use case come into k into it but but we can do it

Rob Loud: robin just to add on to that lee um for the use of what we’re talking about in this discussion for agriculture there we do have models of the backpack that are iot specific so it actually enables the traffic for iot sensors to work much better and as lee has pointed out we built the backpack with an initial idea of what it was for and i’ll kind of compare it to the ipad we never knew what people would end up using it for we’ve seen it used for telemedicine we’ve seen it used for agriculture lots of education we’ve seen it for rescue work a great example was a couple of months ago when we had a hurricane hit here in the u.s up in the mountains there was no communications roads were washed out so nobody could get there the cellular mobile companies couldn’t get there so rescue workers that were on mules took our pack up into the mountains and allowed people not only to have internet access we were able with a partnership with one of the carriers here to create a micro cell so even though there was no power no cellular signal in this area because we were connecting via starlink at that moment we were able to provide internet but also everybody within that area where we were was able to connect their cell phones as well as make text messages so that’s one of the things that i really love about this pack is it’s not just a static idea or a static product. It’s an ever-evolving and based upon use cases, we always try our best to modify it or build a pack that’s specific to what somebody needs. Because what Lee may need or Kwaku may be completely different. And I won’t take up much more, but the other thing that I would like to mention here is we do have a variation that has a small, I’ll call it a computer server in it. And this kind of goes back to the bandwidth question. So in educational situations, we have partners that have taken an entire school’s worth of data and built a web interface. And they run it locally off of this little server in the backpack that then feeds all of the children for their education, all the different grades, collects the information, then once a day can upload it to the ministry of education. So they can run it through their systems for grading this, that, and the other. So there’s lots of ways to make the bandwidth work really well. It’s not just managing it. It’s, can we do things at the local level to create as much content there based upon the use case that makes the use of that bandwidth even more affordable in the long run.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Thank you very much. I’m gonna give Mama Mary the last word. You’ve got about one minute and then we’ll close.

Mary Uduma: The great thing here is that it’s for everybody. Specify what you want to use it for and there it will be for you. So we are hoping that the developers would also put into context why scaling up our peculiar needs in our environment. If it’s emergency, let it be emergency. If it’s education, let it serve us in the education system. If it is e-health. or telehealth, let it serve the telehealth. And if it’s agriculture, let the agricultural sector benefit from what this device can provide. Thank you.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: Thank you, Mama Mary. I wanna give everyone here a round of applause. Thank you for listening to us in this discussion. Thank you for being here. Please clap for yourselves. Excuse me, I’d like to thank our speakers and the folks who engage in interventions, too many to name. And so you see them in the program and I wanna thank all of them for doing so. I wanna thank Wisdom for being visionary and bringing this panel together. I wanna thank the IGF Secretariat for allowing us to have this conversation and welcoming us back to IGF for a third year in a row. I wanna thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi people for welcoming us to their beautiful country and this amazing moment that they’re in this beautiful transformation. And it’s something to behold and to witness and it’s fascinating to watch it live. And last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn’t invite you to join us. We cannot continue to do this work if we don’t collectively build the grassroots. If you go to agcip.org, africaglobalcommunityinternetprogram.org, you’ll be able to see our work, contribute to our work. We need to build this together. In the African tradition, Ubuntu is central to who we are and very much deeply embedded in the philosophy of the work that we do. And so in the spirit of Ubuntu, please join us. It is essential that we all work together to make this happen. The internet that we want, the future that we want, the Africa that we want will not happen if we don’t work together to build it. Without further ado, thank you very much and we’ll close the session. Thank you.

Agreement Points

Internet connectivity is crucial for rural development

Lee McKnight

Jimson Olufuye

Jane Asantewaa Appiah-Okyere

Kwaku Antwi

Mary Uduma

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

Backpack technology provides internet access in remote areas

Connectivity enables agricultural development and market access

Internet access supports education and skills development

Connectivity enables e-commerce for rural farmers

Internet supports e-learning and e-health services

Access to information improves agricultural practices

All speakers agreed that internet connectivity is essential for various aspects of rural development, including agriculture, education, healthcare, and economic growth.

Collaboration between stakeholders is necessary for successful implementation

Jimson Olufuye

AUDIENCE

Jane Asantewaa Appiah-Okyere

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

Community ownership is important for sustainability

Community networks can increase rural internet access

Partnerships needed between government, private sector and communities

Local manufacturing and capacity building should be long-term goal

Multiple speakers emphasized the importance of collaboration between various stakeholders, including government, private sector, and local communities, for successful implementation and sustainability of internet connectivity solutions.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted the technical capabilities of the Internet Backpack, emphasizing its ability to provide sustainable power and efficient bandwidth management for multiple users in remote areas.

Lee McKnight

Rob Loud

Backpack includes sustainable power and energy capabilities

Device can support 35+ simultaneous users

Software manages bandwidth efficiently for multiple users

These speakers shared the view that internet connectivity enables rural communities, particularly farmers, to participate in the digital economy and improve their agricultural practices through access to information and e-commerce opportunities.

Jimson Olufuye

Kwaku Antwi

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

Internet access facilitates participation in digital economy

Connectivity enables e-commerce for rural farmers

Access to information improves agricultural practices

Unexpected Consensus

Use of universal service funds for Internet Backpack deployment

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

Universal service funds could support backpack deployment

While not explicitly mentioned by other speakers, the suggestion to use universal service funds for Internet Backpack deployment represents an unexpected but potentially significant approach to funding connectivity initiatives. This could be a novel way to leverage existing resources for rural internet access.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The speakers demonstrated strong agreement on the importance of internet connectivity for rural development, the need for collaborative approaches, and the potential of technologies like the Internet Backpack to address connectivity challenges in remote areas.

Consensus level

High level of consensus among speakers, with agreement on core issues related to rural connectivity and its benefits. This consensus suggests a shared vision for addressing digital divides and promoting inclusive development through innovative connectivity solutions.

Different Viewpoints

No significant disagreements identified

The speakers generally agreed on the benefits and potential of the Internet Backpack technology for rural connectivity and development.

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

There were no significant disagreements among the speakers. The discussion was largely collaborative and focused on the potential benefits of the Internet Backpack technology.

difference_level

Low level of disagreement. The speakers generally supported the same goals of improving rural connectivity and leveraging technology for development. This consensus suggests a strong foundation for implementing and scaling the Internet Backpack technology in rural areas.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agree on the importance of local involvement, but Yusuf emphasizes long-term manufacturing capacity, while Jimson focuses on community ownership and engagement.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

Jimson Olufuye

Local manufacturing and capacity building should be long-term goal

Community ownership is important for sustainability

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlighted the technical capabilities of the Internet Backpack, emphasizing its ability to provide sustainable power and efficient bandwidth management for multiple users in remote areas.

Lee McKnight

Rob Loud

Backpack includes sustainable power and energy capabilities

Device can support 35+ simultaneous users

Software manages bandwidth efficiently for multiple users

These speakers shared the view that internet connectivity enables rural communities, particularly farmers, to participate in the digital economy and improve their agricultural practices through access to information and e-commerce opportunities.

Jimson Olufuye

Kwaku Antwi

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

Internet access facilitates participation in digital economy

Connectivity enables e-commerce for rural farmers

Access to information improves agricultural practices

Key Takeaways

The Internet Backpack technology provides connectivity to rural and remote areas that lack traditional infrastructure

Internet access enables agricultural development, market access, education, and healthcare services in underserved communities

The backpack supports multiple connectivity options (cellular, satellite, mesh) and can serve 35+ simultaneous users

Community ownership and multi-stakeholder partnerships are important for sustainable implementation

Connectivity facilitates participation in the digital economy and supports the African Continental Free Trade Agreement

Resolutions and Action Items

Explore using universal service funds to support Internet Backpack deployment

Develop local manufacturing and capacity building as a long-term goal

Engage communities to ensure ownership and sustainability of connectivity solutions

Promote the Internet Backpack as a tool for achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals and African Union Agenda 2063

Unresolved Issues

Specific funding mechanisms for large-scale deployment of the technology

Regulatory frameworks needed to support community networks in different countries

Long-term plans for e-waste management and recycling of devices

Strategies for scaling up manufacturing and distribution across Africa

Suggested Compromises

Use lease financing models to make the technology more affordable for communities

Develop variations of the backpack tailored to specific use cases (e.g. agriculture, education, emergency response)

Combine local content servers with internet connectivity to optimize bandwidth usage

Partner with existing telecom providers to complement rather than compete with current infrastructure

The Africa We Want vision seeks to make Africa global, global equal, an integrated economy with accessible digital services for government, businesses, and citizens. It emphasizes e-commerce, e-government, and participation in the fourth industrial revolution, particularly for countries across the continent. However, challenges like limited infrastructure, low internet access, where only 27% of African rural communities are applying, technology gaps remain.

speaker

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

reason

This comment sets the stage for the entire discussion by outlining both the vision and challenges for digital connectivity in Africa. It frames the conversation around a specific goal and identifies key obstacles.

impact

This framing guided the rest of the discussion, with subsequent speakers addressing various aspects of achieving this vision and overcoming the identified challenges.

What were the origins? What was the purpose? It was to bring connectivity anywhere, no matter what. Meaning with or without a local power supply, with or without cell infrastructure, we wanted to make it possible to connect.

speaker

Lee McKnight

reason

This comment provides crucial context about the Internet Backpack technology, highlighting its versatility and potential to address connectivity challenges in diverse environments.

impact

It shifted the conversation to focus on practical solutions and sparked discussion about various use cases for the technology in different African contexts.

So from the private sector perspective, based on our advocacy, because we believe there should be increased collaboration, okay, and for government, private sector, civil society, academic and technical community to come together to see how they can fulfill or achieve the goal of 100% connectivity.

speaker

Jimson Olufuye

reason

This comment emphasizes the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in achieving connectivity goals, introducing a key theme for the discussion.

impact

It broadened the conversation beyond just technology to include governance and partnership aspects, influencing subsequent comments about regulatory frameworks and community involvement.

For me, and I belong to a group in Nigeria, the advisory group for community networks. And this is a big solution for us. Log and play, drop anywhere, any community.

speaker

Jane Asantewaa Appiah-Okyere

reason

This comment connects the technology directly to community networks, highlighting its potential impact at a grassroots level.

impact

It shifted the discussion towards more specific, on-the-ground applications and sparked conversation about community ownership and sustainability.

Our vision is not for us to continue to… I love Rob, and I love the folks at Incon, and I’m happy that they’re doing great humanitarian work. Really, oftentimes, no profit value for them. Like, this is a technology of the very many technologies that they offer as a company. But really, we do want to have a community development, African-based infrastructural capacity building institute to be able to build these technologies, to distribute them across the continent, to deal with the e-waste and recycling of that, to develop the capacity, the jobs, the economic value.

speaker

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

reason

This comment articulates a long-term vision for African ownership and development of the technology, addressing concerns about sustainability and economic impact.

impact

It deepened the conversation by introducing considerations of local capacity building, economic development, and environmental sustainability.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by progressively expanding its scope from the initial focus on the technology itself to broader considerations of implementation, collaboration, community impact, and long-term sustainability. They helped to create a comprehensive dialogue that addressed not just the technical aspects of connectivity, but also its social, economic, and developmental implications for Africa. The discussion evolved from explaining the technology to exploring its potential applications, considering necessary partnerships, and envisioning long-term African ownership and development of such solutions.

How can we develop local capacity to build and maintain internet connectivity hardware in African communities?

speaker

Jarell James

explanation

This is important for sustainability and reducing reliance on imported technology.

What are the specific regulatory reforms needed to enable and support community networks?

speaker

Lee McKnight

explanation

Regulatory changes are key to allowing community-driven internet solutions to flourish.

How can universal service funds be effectively leveraged to support internet connectivity initiatives like the Internet Backpack?

speaker

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir

explanation

Utilizing existing funds could provide sustainable financing for expanding internet access.

What are the best practices for engaging local communities in the deployment and maintenance of internet connectivity solutions?

speaker

Poncelet O. Ileleji

explanation

Community involvement is crucial for the long-term success and adoption of internet technologies.

How can we measure and quantify the economic impact of increased internet connectivity on rural agricultural communities?

speaker

Kwaku Antwi

explanation

Understanding the economic benefits could help justify further investment in connectivity solutions.

What are the most effective ways to provide digital skills training to rural communities, particularly farmers?

speaker

Poncelet O. Ileleji

explanation

Digital literacy is essential for communities to fully benefit from internet connectivity.

How can we address e-waste and ensure sustainable lifecycle management of internet connectivity hardware in rural areas?

speaker

Lee McKnight

explanation

Proper disposal and recycling of technology is important for environmental sustainability.

What are the specific connectivity needs and use cases for different sectors (e.g., agriculture, education, healthcare) in rural African communities?

speaker

Mary Uduma

explanation

Understanding sector-specific needs can help tailor connectivity solutions more effectively.