Thread by @ishaheen10

Digital Divide's incentive structure and how to dismantle it. 10 things I'd like you to know.

1. 3.3 bn people live WITHIN a mobile Internet coverage area but are not online according to the @GSMA

Why?

2. Half the world lives on less than $5.5/day and cannot spend more than $3/month on communication. In most places even 1 GB of data costs more than 2% of income according to @A4A_Internet .

Where is data truly affordable?

3. Reliance Jio in India can offer 100+ hours of video at $3/month because they built a highly fiberized telecom network. While @reliancejio's network cost $23 bn to build, it adds $10 bn / year to India's GDP.

Why can't other telcos do what Reliance did?

4. Average Revenue per User is declining and Data Consumer per customer is rising, making it impossible for boards to approve network upgrades through cell tower fiberization, particularly in rural areas.

Why is cell tower fiberization expensive?

5. Fiber deployments are expensive because of labor, Right of Way fees and Make Ready costs. HOWEVER, the cable itself is a commodity.

How to reduce cost of fiber deployments?

6. Use existing Right of Way and share infrastructure by following the electrical grid to deploy fiber.

Why is the electrical grid more pervasive than fiber?

7. Telcos make 50+% of their revenues from urban areas which account for less than 10% of their infrastructure. Utilities on the other hand get paid to build infrastructure not to sell electrons.

How might we remove telecom's disincentive against rural areas?

8. Utilize an Availability Payment Scheme that was used to build the Palapa Ring Project in Indonesia.

What's so special about an AP scheme?

9. Under an AP scheme, equity returns are fixed, this means that as more users use a fiber network, price paid by each user declines.

But how is that possible?

10. Fiber has virtually infinite bandwidth, when a fiber network is financed under an AP scheme, price paid per user will decline indefinitely.

So shouldn't we start finding all fiber networks under an AP scheme? HELL YES!!

Talk to me if you want to learn more about this.

*New to twitter. Sorry about typos.

*Data consumed per customer in point 4

*Finding = financing in point 10.

Didn’t realise tweets can’t be edited till just now. Oh well.

@communitynets @Ali_Christopher @jane_coffin @stevesong this thread was sparked by our discussion. Thought I’d share.