When I lost my computer yesterday, I got to thinking abut how much we all take the internet for granted and how lucky we are (in some ways) that it is a part of our lives.   It’s one of the reasons the following story is so great.   Google and HSBC are now teaming up to provide cheap, high-speed internet access via satellite to millions in Africa and other parts of the world.   They are backing up a group called o3b, which stands for “other 3 billion” as in the other 3 billion people that don’t have internet access right now.

The project stands to help bridge the digital divide and close the technology gap between the different parts of the globe:

The company’s founder, Greg Wyler, told Reuters coverage would reach from Spain to South Africa, include most of South America, large parts of Asia and all South Pacific Islands. The project intends to offer fibre performance over satellite to parts of the world where it is not commercially viable or practical to deploy a fibre network. [Reuters]

The groups are working to make the project as low cost as possible and are looking to join up with those that have already started installing fibre-optic cables in areas they have outlined as in need.

This is all very exciting because people will suddenly have access to information they never had before but also because they will be able to put information out into the world and we can all benefit from first hand knowledge about places we all need to know more about.

takepart to learn more about this exciting project.

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