DDI Chairman Craig Warren Smith was established as a Visiting Professor at Peking University in July 14, 2020 explicitly for the purpose of organizing a network of Thought Leaders spread between US and China, in which both sides would collaborate to create ethics based alternatives to the “Splinternet” within low income nations.

As indicated by Industry 4.0, we are in an era of Big Data, in which several emergent technologies (AI, IoT, 5G, 3D printing and Quantum Computing) will interact to accelerate data flows into developing countries. But so far, Industry 4.0 only focuses on bringing data to urban industrial sectors that are

Digital Divide Institute has developed a model for reinventing “universal services obligation (USO)” funds, in which developing nations impose a tax on their telecommunications operators worth about $12 billion collectively in 2020. The purpose of USO is to complement commercial investment by enabling telecommunications to meaningfully serve remote and low-income users.

In light of Covid 19, more nations see the urgent need for extending broadband infrastructure to close digital divide, big corporations want to help them. This year the big news is Elon Musk’s Starlink. Its massive network of low-orbiting satellites aim to reduce latency and accelerate internet speeds available to users