The world is gearing up to 5G access by 2020 with gigabit per second speeds and sub-millisecond latencies. However, a significant fraction of the population (estimated at three billion or more) are still without basic Internet access.
There have been several initiatives that have sprung up in recent years that are aimed at tackling some of the fundamental challenges of enabling universal Internet access.
One such initiative is the notion of community networks, where communities get together and pool resources to connect to each other.
The EU H2020 RIFE and UMobile projects at the N4D Lab, recently conducted a study on community network efforts in Thailand. Although Thailand has a greater Internet penetration compared to its neighbours Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, two-thirds of its population still do not have access to broadband Internet.
The N4D Lab via the EU RIFE project has funded 30 routers (TP-Link Arhcer C7 AC1750) to be installed in a new community nearby the Thai Samakee village over the coming year.
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