Growing up in India, we didn’t get our first phone until I was 12 years old. It was a rotary phone. I remember the thrill--the idea that there was this device that could connect us to anyone in the world. All you had to do was remember a phone number, slowly dial it, and hope the person you wanted to talk to was home when you called. How exciting!
There are some who would say access is not a problem for private companies to solve, that it should be the job of our governments to give their citizens what they need to get online. Obviously, I disagree. This is the job of everyone --tech companies, yes, but also governments, NGOs, telcos, pretty much everyone who cares about bringing more opportunity to more people in more places.