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JoinAfrica Aims to Spread Free Wi-Fi Across Africa

by Terrence O'Brien on May 16, 2010 at 09:00 AM

Internet Penetration in Africa
After making millions with the travel site Kayak, Paul English has turned his gaze from building Web start-ups to being a bit of a philanthropist. Okay, that's underselling a smidgen... English has taken on one of the more ambitious projects we've ever seen. His new hybrid non-profit/for-profit company, JoinAfrica, has a stated goal of blanketing the entire continent in free and low-cost Wi-Fi.

English believes having access to the vast stores of information online is almost as important as having clean drinking water and power. To reach this lofty goal, JoinAfrica has partnered with some local African telecoms and one "major infrastructure" company, although English has yet to disclose the identity of the latter. At first, the group will work to expand the reach of existing networks and to offer free, basic service for access to sites like Gmail, Wikipedia and various news sources. More bandwidth-intensive services like streaming video and pornography will be throttled to ensure a basic level of service for all as the networks grow. Under the plan, local telecommunications companies would be free to offer higher speed, premium access, and to charge low monthly fees for it. English's biggest concern right now is ensuring that the local partners continue to improve networks, and monitor the progress of individual projects for potential abuse and corruption.

After making his millions, the entrepreneur told Fast Company he wanted to use his skills for something "transformative." In the past, he had been involved with one-off projects bringing the Web to individual villages in African countries, but it became clear that efforts on a much more massive scale were needed. As English has so delicately said, "the continent of Africa has been so f****d over," and this is his way of trying to right that wrong. [From: Fast Company]

Tags: africa, interent, internet penetration, InternetPenetration, joinafrica, kayak, PaulEnglish, philanthropy, top, Web, wifi, wifi in africa, WifiInAfrica

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