Will Digital Divide End Soon?

|By- Komal Yadav|

It is a common presumption that one of the most important parts and parcels of our lives, internet, has left no life untouched. Users can rarely think of a day without the internet. It has perfectly hit the psychology of humans in such a trail that they could merely find a way to get rid of it. But do we ever realize that almost half the human population are not accessible to this privilege! But does anyone know the reason behind this? Will this half of the population be beneficial soon? In this article, we are going to answer all these questions.

Out of the total population of 7.8 billion from all over the world, roughly only 4.5 billion people have access to the Internet. Indeed 42% of the humankind has no idea what they are lacking behind. Development in such territories is put to rest. Internet Revolutionary is the forthcoming outlook in the world.

Let’s begin with the simplification of the term Digital Divide. The gap between people who have and don’t have the accessibility to modern information and communication technology is called digital divide. In such a modern world, the most frequent question is that why the society is unable to gain access to internet even after so much of digitalization.

The reason behind this divide typically appears from the difference between rural and urban areas, educational institutions, economic development, infrastructure, etc. Mainly the problem occurs in those complex geographical locations where it is very difficult to build infrastructure. Such places include dense forest zones like parts of Madhya Pradesh and also the vast deserts of Rajasthan.

It’s difficult to built connectivity through conventional fiber or terrestrial radio connectivity system in such conditions. So how are we going to reach out to them? Regions like South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, necessitates to make use of satellite-based connectivity because of its terrain. This indicates how we found our direction to build infrastructure not on land but in the sky.

“I am delighted that Bharti will be leading the effort to deliver the promise of universal broadband connectivity through OneWeb, with the active support and participation of the British Government”

~ Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises

Recently, Bharti Global Ltd won the bid of 45% stake in bankrupt satellite OneWeb. OneWeb was founded in the UK. It came into existence with a mission to offer high speed and low latency wireless broadband access globally. To achieve this target, they proposed a plan of the mega constellation of satellites in low earth orbit to deliver affordable internet services throughout the world. Through mega-constellations, it would be viable to reach every nook and corner of the globe without any hindrance. In other words, it is just a cellular tower but in the sky.

They set two phases to finalize this project which comprises of Phase 1 with 650 satellites and Phase 2 with 1980 satellites. It has already completed installations of 74 satellites till March 2020 but due to insolvency it so happened that they couldn’t complete the proposed mark. Therefore, Bharti Enterprises limited which owns Airtel sought it as a big opportunity and tugged it.

Airtel is one of the largest telecom operators in India and Africa. Taking a risk by investing in this firm will either give a tough competition to Jio in near future or maybe it will cost a huge casualty to Sunil Mittal. Nevertheless, if it’s successful the world will definitely get together in one alley of string.

Although the race is heating up as the Starlink project and Kuiper Project are also in the equivalent mission to win. Giving rise to the biggest revolutionary change in the upcoming future, now it could be rightly said that “SPACE” is the next hot topic to be pondered on for satellite broadband connections.

Let us hope for eliminating this division with great success fostering the last billion to reach.