Google is to invest in wireless connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report, and is currently engaged in a series of discussions with regulators in Kenya and South Africa.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports the search engine giant is looking to build and run wireless networks in developing countries, aimed at connecting more people to the internet.
Google is also pursuing a similar strategy in Southeast Asia, with people familiar with the strategy telling the WSJ Google will be teaming up with telecoms firms to develop the networks.
The company’s move is guided by the reasoning that consumption of information catapults economies up the value chain, and with the necessary resources developing countries could manage to build infrastructure and put in place the relevant regulatory framework.
Google will this week hold a two-day meeting with a number of developers in Dakar, Senegal.
In a recent post, Google chairman Eric Schmidt projected the entire world would be online by 2020, with Africa currently among the lowest regions in terms of internet penetration.
“For every person online, there are two who are not. By the end of the decade, everyone on Earth will be connected,” Schmidt said on his Google+ page.
The WSJ further reports the search giant is lobbying regulators in the respective countries to release spectrum reserved for television broadcast, while also working on high-altitude platforms in the form of blimps, to transmit signals.
