Access for all, provided by many

BRINGING THE NET TO EVERYONE: Google has sent balloons to the edge of space with the lofty aim of bringing the Internet to the two-thirds of the global population currently without web access.

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.