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Community Networks Success Stories


Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
Alabama entrepreneur Boyd Stephens partnered with the Tuskegee Housing Authority and revisited a century-old idea to empower people through connectivity, bringing social and economic development to the local community.

Kgopotso Magoro, inspired by an OpEd that claimed that “coming from a rural area is like being cursed” for the lack of opportunities available, started a journey that would lead to the creation of the Mamaila Community Network.

Combining Revolutionary Technologies to Grow a Better Future
What happens when two technical revolutions collide? Digital Dera unleashes human potential in rural Pakistan.

Building an Internet Oasis in the City’s Connectivity Deserts
An effort to connect community centers during the pandemic now serves thousands of people.

Barefoot Wireless Engineers, India
An idea expands from a single community to a web of engineers, connecting thousands to opportunities.
Learn how a pilot community network in Chanderi sparked a global movement, using human networks to grow the Internet.

To overcome decades of conflict and isolation, a Colombian community builds their own network. With the right policies they might be able to use it.
Learn how the community and local organizations are working to change regulations and reconnect to the world.

A community network in Zimbabwe grows from cyber café to local hub of knowledge, healthcare, and development.
Learn how a community in Murambinda paved their way to connectivity, marked the start of a new era, and realized the Internet as a place of possibility.

An independent nation in Hawai’i builds the Internet from the ground up, connecting to its sovereignty and to the world. Since the deployment, people in Pu’uhonua o Waimanalo had the services they needed just before the COVID-19 outbreak while also increasing economic exchange.
Learn how local champions and partnerships guided their journey to connectivity.

Wireless for Communities (W4C) is an award-winning program, initiated in 2010 by the Internet Society Asia-Pacific Bureau. The W4C program provided last mile connectivity to rural and remote areas of the Asia-Pacific using wireless technologies.
We are working to support 100 more solutions to connect the unconnected in communities all over the world, and you can be part of it. Join us.
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At the 2021 Asia-Pacific Community Networks Summit: Innovating Policymaking to Connect the Unconnected
Addressing Historic Inequalities in Brazil—through Community Networks
Image copyrights:
© Nyani Quarmyne, © Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), © J.J. McQueen, © Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), © Elyse Butler, © Internet Society / Christian O’Flaherty