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Google becomes first foreign internet company to go live in Cuba
After former President Obama reopened America's diplomatic relations with Cuba, businesses started looking for opportunities to make inroads to the island nation. Google was one of these, with Obama himself announcing it would come to help set up WiFi and broadband access there. Cuba's national telecom ETECSA officially inked a deal with Google back in December, and today, they finally switched on the service, making the search giant the first foreign internet live on the island.
Turkey shuts off internet service in 11 Kurdish cities
The Turkish government has cut off mobile and landline internet access to 11 cities in the country's southeast, a region that is predominantly Kurdish, Turkey Blocks reports. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, composing roughly 20 percent of the population, and the country has a history of committing human rights abuses against this population. The latest internet shutdown is now in its second day, and it comes amid protests over the detention of Gültan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı, the mayor and co-mayor of Diyarbakir. The two are being held on terrorism charges.
Indonesian government may ban over 80 LGBT apps and websites
While homosexuality isn't technically illegal in Indonesia, it's extremely frowned upon in society. That extends to the digital realm, like when the country's Information and Communications Ministry pressured social app Line to remove LGBT themes and stickers back in February. While that and other government statements reportedly stoked anti-gay sentiment through the spring, they began drafting a bill to ban pro-LGBT sites in March. Yesterday, officials from multiple agencies exited a closed-door meeting at the Communications Ministry ready to block over 80 apps and websites in the country in an unprecedented crackdown.
Facebook reveals open-source wireless platform, OpenCellular
OpenCellular is Facebook's open-source wireless access platform designed to provide internet to remote areas around the world. OpenCellular is roughly the size of a shoe box and it can support up to 1,500 people as far as 10 kilometers away with a range of connectivity options, including wireless services and everything from 2G to LTE. By the end of 2015, more than 4 billion people across the globe didn't have access to basic internet services and 700 million people lived outside the range of cellular connectivity -- making it difficult to log into Facebook, of course.
UN rights council condemns the disruption of internet access
The United Nations Human Rights Council has had enough of state-sponsored attempts to restrict internet access and punish people who use the internet as a space for free expression. The council on Friday passed a resolution that reaffirms and expands its previous stances upholding internet rights across the globe, noting, "The same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression." Today's resolution is non-binding, but it can be used as support in future cases of online human-rights violations.
Google seeks carrier for Loon pilot program in India
Google's Project Loon has blossomed from a crazy-sounding scheme into a practical program. In fact, the company can now auto-launch a balloon in 30 minutes that will stay aloft for 100 days. For the next step, the company will run a full pilot program to provide service to a large number of actual people, and is planning on doing it in India. The company's India VP, Rajan Anandan, told the Economic Times that it will need to partner with an India-based carrier to do so. "We can't do a Loon pilot without partnering with a local telco. We're talking to a number of them."
There are now 3 billion internet users, mostly in rich countries
The UN's International Telecommunication's Union (ITU) has revealed that over 3 billion people are now connected to the internet, an increase of 6.6 percent over last year. The good news is that such access can have a huge impact "for those who are the poorest and most disenfranchised, including women, youth and those with disabilities," according to the report. However, the bad news is that much of that coverage doesn't apply to people who need it the most. Of the 4.3 billion people still not connected to the internet, 90 percent live in developing countries, with two-thirds of users in first-world countries.
Facebook's Internet.org app offers free web access in Zambia
We've heard quite a bit about Mr. Zuckerberg's plans to bring low-cost internet access to the otherwise disconnected, and today, his social network announced plans to do just that in Zambia. The new Internet.org app allows users to browse weather, health and employment info at no cost. And that's not all Google Search, Facebook, Messenger and Wikipedia are available as well. Right now, the option is available to Airtel subscribers in the country, but it will roll out to other parts of the world in the future. Cellular service blankets much of the globe, however the cost of the mobile web deters many from opting in. This will certainly help.
Facebook in talks to buy drone company, could battle Google's internet balloons
Facebook is in discussions to purchase Titan Aerospace, a company that makes solar-powered drones that can apparently stay up in the skies for up to five years at a time. According to TechCrunch's sources, Facebook wants solar-powered drones to deliver sky-based internet access, with a view to building 11,000 UAVs to deliver data services, at least initially, in Africa. The drone company has confirmed that there are discussions with Facebook, The plan would certainly chime with the social network's Internet.org efforts to expand online access in developing countries. Of course, Google is also trialling internet access from the sky, although it's using balloons, with Project Loon offering 50 testers internet access via solar-powered helium balloons. Its experiments are currently centered on the southern hemisphere, namely New Zealand. The purchase will reportedly cost Facebook $60 million -- still, a whole lot cheaper than a messaging app.
Google, Facebook seek to drive down cost of internet access, join Alliance for Affordable Internet
Tech titans Google and Facebook are just two of the boldface Silicon Valley names joining the fight for affordable internet access in the developing world. And to that end, the two companies -- in addition to a host of other notable tech outfits (i.e., Yahoo, Intel and Microsoft, amongst others), special interest groups and governments -- have formed the Alliance for Affordable Internet, a public / private coalition designed to drive down anticompetitive costs through policy change. The group, spearheaded by the World Wide Web Foundation, aims to begin advocating for cheaper access in a handful of locations within the developing world by year end, with an eventual target of reducing costs to "less than 5-percent of average monthly income" in up to 12 countries through 2015. Beyond advocacy, the group also intends to survey the global state of internet access with the release of an "Affordability Report," the first of which is due this December. You can read more about A4AI's policies and best practices right here.
Internet.org targets efficiency and cost reduction to connect the next 5 billion
If Internet.org ever hopes to be successful with its goal of bringing affordable internet to the next 5 billion people, the cost of delivery will need to be much cheaper than it is today. Today, members of the coalition -- which includes Facebook, Qualcomm, Ericsson and others -- released a substantial 70-page white paper that outlines some of the initial steps that are on the drawing board. According to the group's estimates, data delivery is currently 100 times too expensive to execute the vision of Internet.org, but all of that could change within the next decade. To accomplish this, Internet.org is seeking ways to bring a tenfold improvement to the cost of delivering data, along with apps that are 10 times more efficient. For Facebook's part, it highlights technologies such as HipHop for PHP and the HipHop virtual machine, which allows its existing servers to accommodate 500 percent more traffic than before, and its Air Traffic Control system, which allows it to simulate different mobile networks and congestion systems around the world. Similarly, Facebook is looking to compression technologies such as WebP -- currently in use on its Android app -- to replace image formats such as PNG and JPEG, which alone could reduce network traffic by 20%. Another challenge is looming, however, as Qualcomm estimates that the demand for data will double each year over the next 10 years, ultimately increasing 1000 fold over where it is today. To meet that demand, it's lobbying for a substantial spectrum reallocation, along with technologies such as carrier aggregation, LTE-Broadcast and LTE Direct. Combine this with more unconventional approaches that it'll reveal at a later date, and you begin to appreciate the massive undertaking that lies ahead for the partners of Internet.org.
Facebook and others form Internet.org to foster global internet adoption (video)
Google's strategy for bringing internet access to underserved areas involves giant balloons, but Facebook's leans more on collaboration. The social network has founded Internet.org along with Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Samsung and Qualcomm, and is setting the partnership's sights on making sure the two-thirds of the world that doesn't have internet access gets the proper hookup. Zuckerberg and friends aren't ready for a complete show-and-tell of their plans just yet, but they've outlined some of their goals: making access affordable, using data more efficiently and lending businesses a hand so they can increase access. When it comes to cost cutting, the group aims to develop and use tech that allows for cheaper connectivity, such as affordable high-quality smartphones. As for data efficiency, the team may investigate compression tools and caching systems to help ease the load on fledgling networks. In fact, Facebook is already working on reducing its Android app's daily data usage from 12MB a day to just 1MB. Lastly, the organization intends to look into sustainable business models that sweeten the pot for everyone from developers to mobile operators to pitch in for the cause. Connecting roughly 5 billion people to the web is a tall order by any standard, but Facebook and Co. are drawing inspiration from their successful Open Compute Project to give themselves a fighting chance. Zuck's scheduled to talk up the alliance on CNN tomorrow morning, but you can head past the break for a video from Internet.org that tugs at the heart strings.
Google donates $600,000 to bring free WiFi to San Francisco parks
San Francisco has been striving for city-wide internet access since 2007, and with a little help from Mountain View, it's now one step closer to achieving that lofty goal. After receiving a $600,000 donation from Google, 31 public parks in one of the world's most tech-savvy cities will have free WiFi for at least two years. Google's gift will cover installation and maintenance of all necessary equipment for the project, which builds upon the the city's existing public WiFi hotspots like San Francisco International Airport and City Hall. While blanket coverage for the entire city is still a ways off, offering free internet access in places like public parks is a giant step forward in making the web accessible for all.
Provo council approves fiber network sale to Google, but city must front $1.7 million
Provo, Utah's plan to sell its cost-plagued fiber network to Google has been approved by the municipal council, meaning it'll soon become the third Google Fiber city. However, while still not receiving any money upfront as earlier reported, it'll now have to advance $1.7 million in equipment and engineering costs not part of the deal before, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. In exchange, each Provo resident will get a free 5-megabit internet connection for seven years and Google will have to upgrade the network to connect all the city's homes. It's not quite free, however, as the city's 120,000 residents must still pay a $39 million bond for building the network -- meaning they'll shell out $3.3 million for each of the next 12 years.
Phone companies see loss of broadband subscribers for first time in Q2, cable continues to gain
It wasn't all that long ago that the phone company was the source for internet access, first with traditional dial-up and later with DSL. That quickly began to change as cable companies started offering their own alternative, though, and the AP is now reporting that the second quarter of this year saw something of a milestone. According to its tally, the eight largest phone companies in the US lost a collective 70,000 broadband subscribers in Q2 (DSL or otherwise), while the four biggest cable companies continued to grow with 290,000 new subscribers. As it notes, AT&T is the main culprit for that overall decline, with it losing 96,000 broadband subscribers while the other phone companies all saw modest growth. It also notes that second quarter is a generally weak one for all broadband providers, what with college students cancelling their subscriptions before heading home -- but, then again, this is the first time that the phone companies haven't seen at least some growth during the period. Of course, this is also just home broadband we're talking about -- mobile broadband is another matter altogether.
Avanti launches prepaid, Ka-band satellite internet access, wants us Yelping from the Alps
Avanti has been beaming satellite broadband to Europe for awhile, but it's been tied to a subscription through carrier deals. That's a tough sell to customers who, by definition, don't want to be tied to anything -- which is why the company just launched prepaid satellite internet access for the continent. Although the Ka-band service's 4Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream speeds won't have anyone dropping their 330Mbps fiber anytime soon, the pay-as-you-go strategy will let travelers and rural dwellers get broadband in a pinch, no matter how spotty terrestrial access might get. Imagine Skype calls during Swiss ski vacations and you've got the gist of it. Carriers will resell the data in healthy doses of 1GB or larger, and Avanti is adamant that there won't be any nasty throttling surprises waiting in store. While exact prices will depend on partners, the provider isn't waiting for those details before it covers much of the Old World: its upcoming HYLAS 2 satellite (what you see above) will share the speed with Africa, the Caucasus region and the Middle East as of August 2nd, making it almost too easy for us to update Google+ in Georgia.
Myanmar plans to open doors to foreign telcos for affordable cellular, internet service
Hefty price tags haven't exactly made cellphones ubiquitous in cash-strapped Myanmar. According to AFP, an estimated 96 percent of the nation's 60 million inhabitants don't own a mobile handset, but that might soon be changing. A new reform plan announced by Myanmar's Post and Telecommunication Minister, Thein Tun, lays out a strategy that could finally give said folks a crack at affordable cellular and internet services. If successful, the initiative will start a bidding process for international telcos to set up shop in the country, allowing the companies to partner with the state-owned telephone provider and the ISP Yatanarpon Teleport. There's no word on when the partnerships may coalesce, but here's to hoping that $200 SIM card registration fees in Myanmar soon become a thing of the past. Full details at the source link below. [Image credit: Shutterstock]
'Facebook tax' could make web companies pay for usage outside the US
Leaked documents purportedly from the ITU reveal that the body is considering a levy on content-heavy services like Facebook and Netflix to pay for the bandwidth they use outside of the US. Tabled by lobbyists representing Europe's biggest cellphone networks, the proposal suggests that Google and others should shoulder some of the cost of bringing their services to customers in the rest of the world. In response, Cisco VP Robert Pepper has argued that any such charge could cause web services to block queries from developing nations, "effectively cutting them off from the internet." The motion will be discussed at a December meeting of the ITU council, where all 193 member countries will be allowed to vote. [Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons]
HP India to expand web access with Vayu Internet Device
The Internet is gradually seeping its way into homes across India, but there are many within the country who remain too poor to actually purchase a PC. Fortunately, HP India has just developed new technology known as the Vayu Internet Device, or VInD, that could dramatically lessen this gap. According to the Times of India, the company's new set top box will essentially allow users to access web content via traditional TVs, using standard remotes, rather than keyboards or mice. All they'd have to do is plug it in, subscribe to an internet service, and turn on their in-home televisions. The idea, of course, is to deepen web penetration across lower-income populations, as well as among the elderly, who may have difficulties manipulating more complex computer equipment. No word yet on when the VInD could hit the market, but the Times of India has a more comprehensive rundown, at the source link below.
ViaSat 12Mbps 'exede' broadband gets official date and data bundles, eyes up you rural types
Still fancy some of that 12Mbps satellite broadband ViaSat announced last week? Well, the service finally got a name: Exede. Also, that suggested January 16th date for consumer roll-out has been confirmed. If you're still undecided whether you want some of that "feels like fiber" service, then maybe the freshly revealed package details might sway you? The $50 basic bundle will get you 7.5GB monthly quota which can be increased to 15GB ($80) or 25GB ($130) if that doesn't fill your data belly. Tap the PR if you want to read more.
