The struggles of global broadband
The Truth Is In The Statistics
It’s 2024, and yet the harsh reality of broadband connection is plain to see. A third of the globe is still not connected to broadband, as revealed in an announcement by the ITU in September 2023.
It is truly baffling how in a world dominated by broadband networks and digital involvement, a third of our population still remains excluded from the bounty of digital opportunities available for industries wide.
This global issue is caused by the ever-changing and evolving geographical and economic challenges, which continue to develop by the day. It is essential that broadband providers begin to address the ongoing problems with connection across the globe and make the relevant changes within their systems and solutions to accommodate for the ultimate mission: connectivity.
Stepping Forward, Empowered Foot First
For those of us who rely on broadband day in and day out to complete our daily goals and tasks, we couldn’t imagine a life without it. In a world where our careers, leisure, relationships and a multitude of other scenarios are dominated by the presence of broadband and connectivity, it is hard to believe that many cannot access these opportunities.
As a species, we are entirely invested in broadband technology and the way it intertwines with our lives — and so many more should have this option. For more people globally to have this connection would mean vital changes such as access to life-saving healthcare, education, finance and other basic services. People and organisations everywhere can be involved in the global marketplace, developing their personal skills, career and governance within communities. By taking this massive step forward into a world empowered by connectivity, we, as broadband service providers, can dramatically improve the prospects for communities in all walks of life and cultures globally.
The Real Challenges With Global Rollout
Due to the struggles present with providing broadband to rural areas, these communities are often unfortunately left behind.
Reaching networks to rural areas means increased network lengths, astronomical costs and the fall of commercial reliability. In most scenarios, the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) drops due to the population density becoming thinner. However, instead of addressing these issues, most broadband providers will struggle to justify the inclusion of these areas financially and simply refuse to address the issues that are clear to see across the globe.
Location is the main issue here, with this creating issues in broadband installation. For those in rural areas, location is the biggest factor for the lack of connectivity, due to their being difficult to access and often poor road infrastructure. Not only this, but the locations are often extremely hard to access, and this can cause a significant financial and logistical issue in connecting the areas to broadband.
Similarly, climate is a problematic issue — affecting much of the infrastructure and communities in connectivity dead zones. If there is a blocked route due to poor weather and the lack of community resources to address the issue, how can broadband providers successfully connect the communities who reside there?
This is an important factor that needs to be addressed.
With all of these issues considered, most organisations and people in the industry will agree that satellite connection is the optimum solution.
Incorporating satellite solutions requires no prior infrastructure, all anyone needs is a vision and a satellite.
Satellite doesn’t just mean a single option, either —with the ever-evolving nature of satellite, organizations can choose between VSAT options, which make use of GEO (geosynchronous) satellites and the newer LEO satellites.
As with any good and available options for anything, GEO and LEO have their differences. While GEO is more reliable and well established throughout the industry, offering CIRs and SLAs, LEO is not able to offer these benefits at this point in its journey. While Starlink satellites are high performance by nature with high bandwidth capabilities, many broadband providers opt for GEO solutions due to their reliable nature. This is essential for many due to the mission critical aspect of broadband connection, organisations that rely on connection cannot risk being left on the outskirts for too long, if at all.
Mission Critical: All Hands On Deck
With this in mind, it is absolutely crucial that people and organizations across the globe make the right choice with their broadband installation team. Not only is having broadband connection critical for most of the population, a large majority of those who rely on broadband do so for mission critical reasons. In make or break situations, organisations simply cannot risk losing all connection mid mission. It is the harsh reality of life that many scenarios where broadband connection is crucial are working hard to save lives, build communities, run life- saving healthcare facilities and perform vital medical missions as a result of this connection. Losing this connection is simply not an option.
Tackling broadband installation with an honest and thorough knowledge of the local area, a good understanding of the culture and a passion for connecting communities is the true foundation of making broadband available to everyone.
Intrepid Teams
Ultimately, the key to global broadband connection is to incorporate the help of teams that are willing to go the extra mile for installation. Securing a team that cares about the culture, has a knowledge of the local area and has a true passion to help the community is what will allow for more organisations and people to commit to broadband connection on a global scale.
Above all, ensuring that as many corners of the globe as possible have access to rock solid communication and a cost-effective, yet reliable form of broadband connection is absolutely essential. It is vital for the team installing your method of broadband connectivity to have empathy, understand and truly take the time to make the location and the solution work in harmony together.
At OASIS, we believe that rapid response and global coverage are the ultimate take home for any broadband installation process, and that more broadband providers and installation teams need to offer global engineering services, including equipment, installation, maintenance, 24/7 support and above all —trust. We take this very seriously as part of our team, and honestly believe that it will make the difference across the globe the more providers implement these values.
In order to address the global broadband coverage issues we are facing, the team at OASIS is determined to provide one unified price list with a day-to- day billing cycle, and we continue to encourage the industry that this level of flexibility and a pay per usage cycle should be standard.
Just having the empathy to understand the financial limitations of a geographical region can be the difference between broadband connection and yet another dead zone. If we begin to address these issues as a global force and improve our approach to broadband installation, we can all play our part and be the significant driving force towards a global community committed to connection.
www.oasisnetworks.net