On June 6, 2023, AirJaldi extended its partnership with Microsoft to bring internet connectivity to underserved rural communities in India, titled "Contentful Connectivity ". 

The MoU signing ceremony took place on March 6, 2023, at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi India. The project aims to advance access to high-speed internet and meaningful connectivity as a fundamental right to all and will be executed in the nine states where we already have a presence and in three new states - Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. 

MICROSOFT AND AIRJALDI, an innovator and implementer of economically viable internet connectivity solutions for rural areas, signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The program's titled 'Contentful Connectivity' aims to advance access to high-speed internet connectivity in collaboration with private, public, and non-profit sectors and build solutions for broadband adoption and digital transformation, benefitting underserved communities in India's hinterlands.

Over the next three years, the program will see AirJaldi Networks expanding into three new states—Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha—with an increase in network locations from 40 to 62 in 12 states. An addition of 1,500 km of fiber network will help reach out to 20,000 square kilometers. This will provide access to the Internet to nearly 500,000 underserved beneficiaries.

AirJaldi, the brand name used by Rural Broadband internet service provider in India since 2009, will also strengthen its presence in nine states by extending the wireless and wired infrastructure and supporting the extension of reach and connectivity provision for underserved users. AirJaldi Networks will deploy, implement, and test new connectivity technologies, approaches, and connectivity-related solutions to improve the quality of services offered and the sustainability of the networks.

The two companies will enhance skilling, education, and entrepreneurship training programs by strengthening the courses for women's entrepreneurship and rural connectivity. It will integrate Microsoft modules on digital productivity, employability skills, and artificial intelligence (AI) fluency skills for 15,000 underserved community members, particularly women, youth and high school children in 12 states. 

These network-led training programs would be based on a multi-faceted training approach combining face-to-face training, online sessions and online Learning Management System (LMS) courses delivered through the Microsoft Community Training platform, and a 24/7 learning help desk to provide course support and career guidance.

As part of the collaboration, the companies will build Internet of Things (IoT) based connectivity-related solutions in the rural regions on networking, e-learning, skilling, telemedicine, agriculture, accessibility, and environment to transform livelihoods and well-being of enterprises and communities. It will also develop partnerships with government and corporate organizations for sustenance in three states where the networks are getting created in education, diverse skills for jobs, or women entrepreneurship.

Antony Cook, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, said, "Partnerships are foundational to the success of Airband. By working with AirJaldi Networks, we will extend internet access to 500,000 beneficiaries in underserved communities in rural India. Beyond solving for internet access to help the country's digital capabilities continue to grow, Microsoft expects that this expanded access to the internet will also help these beneficiaries to enhance their digital productivity, AI and employability skills." 

Michael Ginguld, director of strategy and operations at AirJaldi Networks, added, "This partnership, a continuation of our work with Microsoft since 2016, is a significant step forward in achieving our joint goals of providing wide-ranging, meaningful and impactful connectivity across India. The combination of connectivity, digital tools and digital skills are essential building blocks in ensuring the central role of internet connectivity in improving people's lives."

The Microsoft Airband initiative was launched to bring transformative connectivity to underserved communities worldwide. Through this program and its partners, the tech company is attempting to catalyze affordable access to connectivity, explicitly focusing on regions with lower digital connectivity rates. 

Partnering with Microsoft's Airband Initiative, organizations like AirJaldi Networks have additional support to create the infrastructure needed to provide connectivity support in many different ecosystems, ultimately driving self-empowerment and sustainable development and growth. This can provide local expertise and experience to help achieve a greater goal tied to what can be harnessed with the support of connectivity. As technology, like AI, advances, connecting provides a path forward to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. 

Microsoft and AirJaldi Networks Collaboration

Microsoft and AirJaldi Networks strengthen collaboration to provide internet access for underserved communities in 12 states

Mark McCord , World Economic Forum, Global Agenda, February 2021 

India has the second-largest online market in the world, but 50% of people living there have no access to the internet. 

Indian internet service provider AirJaldi has teamed up with Microsoft to provide affordable online access for rural communities. 

Reliable broadband connections are vital for the millions of children who are being homeschooled during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

India has the world’s second-largest online market, yet half its population – nearly 700 million people – are unconnected.

That may soon change as Indian internet service provider, AirJaldi, is broadening access through an innovative project with global tech giant Microsoft. 

solar radios keep Kenyan children learning   

 These are the countries where internet access is lowest How COVID-19 deepens the digital education divide in India
    

 In a bid to connect some of India’s most poorly served areas, AirJaldi has installed 30,000 square kilometres of wireless coverage.  (Image: AirJaldi)


Microsoft’s Airband Initiative aims to bring fast and reliable internet connections to some of the world’s most poorly served areas. The partnership with AirJaldi in India will provide access to vital services such as healthcare, as well as banking and economic development.

AirJaldi is developing what it describes as “an affordable network” in rural and semi-urban areas across India, some of which have no access to power or mobile connectivity. It has so far installed 30,000 square kilometres of wireless coverage, reaching 1,500 villages. 

Fixing the digital divide could have huge implications for the life chances of India’s poor. Tasks that might ordinarily mean an expensive and time-consuming trip to the city, such as banking, can be done online, argues AirJaldi. Access to education, healthcare and government services also become democratized through digitalization.

“Without connectivity, you cannot talk about improving people’s livelihoods, well-being, or voice,” Michael Ginguld, one of AirJaldi’s co-founders, told Microsoft Stories India.

       The pandemic exposed the digital divide between children in cities and rural areas. AirJaldi is attempting to bridge that gap. (Image: AirJaldi)

 What is the World Economic Forum doing about ensuring access to the internet for all?  

In 2018, internet connectivity finally reached over half the world’s population. Yet some 3.4 billion people – about 50% of the world’s population – are still not online.

Although much progress has been made in closing this digital divide, the challenge remains overwhelming, complex and multidimensional. It requires a collaborative, multistakeholder approach to overcome four key barriers to internet inclusion: infrastructure; affordability; skills, awareness and cultural acceptance; and relevant content.

The World Economic Forum launched Internet for All in 2016 to provide a platform where leaders from government, private-sector, international organizations, non-profit organizations, academia and civil society could come together and develop models of public-private collaboration for internet inclusion globally.

Since its launch, Internet for All has achieved significant on-the-ground results globally - including launching four operational country programmes in Rwanda, South Africa, Argentina and Jordan. 

Read more about our results, and ongoing efforts to ensure access to the internet for all in our impact story.

Contact us to partner with the Forum and shape the future of our digital economy.  

Internet access is linked to improved economic outcomes and can help bring development, education and jobs to communities, a recent World Economic Forum report concluded.

The importance of a reliable, low-cost internet connection proved particularly vital when the COVID-19 pandemic caused nationwide lockdowns and prevented in-school education for many children. The health crisis exposed a digital divide between well-connected children in cities such as Mumbai and those in rural areas. City children were able to join online classes, while those in remote villages were prevented from doing so by inadequate internet access. 

  There will be an estimated 975 million internet users in India by 2025, but women, older people and non-city dwellers will miss out unless progress is made. Image: Statista  

The need for a solution becomes more acute as India’s digitalization accelerates – in 2019 the country was ranked just behind China in terms of having the world’s largest internet populations. The faster the transformation, the deeper the digital divide becomes for the large swathes of the country that remain offline.

 AirJaldi isn’t alone in trying to bridge the chasm. Digital India, launched in 2015 by the government, is an umbrella programme working to improve internet connectivity and is committed to doubling the size of the country’s online economy. 

India is not the only nation to suffer a yawning gap between the digital haves and have-nots –  half of the planet’s population currently lacks any form of internet connection. Those without tend to be in already-disadvantaged, isolated rural communities.

 Two-thirds of school-age children worldwide cannot access the internet at home, according to UNICEF figures. In light of the pandemic and the United Nation’s sustainable development goals for education, this is a figure which needs to be addressed urgently.

second-largest online market

Achieving Internet for All

impact story

Contact us

Internet access is linked to improved economic outcomes

India’s digitalization accelerates

Digital India

 half of the planet’s population currently lacks any form of internet connection

Two-thirds of school-age children worldwide cannot access the internet at home

United Nation’s sustainable development goals

 AirJaldi


            With schools closed by the pandemic, solar radios keep Kenyan children learning



            These are the countries where internet access is lowest



            How COVID-19 deepens the digital education divide in India


Airband Initiative

Internet for All

The World Economic Forum's Global Agenda section describes Microsoft Airband and AirJaldi's work on connecting rural India and c losing the digital divide

This project wants to bring broadband - and hope - to rural India

Yes Magazine, February 2016g
by Richard Heinberg

Richard Heinberg in his article Life After Oil, for the Spring 2016 Issue of Yes Magazine sets AirJaldi Networks as an example of companies in poor nations “using relatively little power” to “provide internet access to about 20,000 remote users in six states, using mostly solar power”.

AirJaldi is pleased to be mentioned in an article that deals with one of the most important challenges of our futures – sustainable use of energy.

Mr. Heinberg is a Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shidt away fro our current reliance on fossil fuels. Author of 12 award-winning books, Mr Heinberg has written for Nature, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the Christian Science Monitor and has delivered hundreds of lectures on energy and climate issues.

100% Renewable Energy: What We Can Do in 10 Years

It will take at least three decades to completely leave behind fossil fuels. But we can do it. And the first step is to start with the easy stuff.

If our transition to renewable energy is successful, we will achieve savings in the ongoing energy expenditures needed for economic production. We will be rewarded with a quality of life that is acceptable—and, perhaps, preferable to our current one (even though, for most Americans, material consumption will be scaled back from its current unsustainable level). We will have a much more stable climate than would otherwise be the case. And we will see greatly reduced health and environmental impacts from energy production activities.

But the transition will entail costs—not just money and regulation, but also changes in our bbehaviourand expectations. It will probably take at least three or four decades, and will fundamentally change the way we live.

Nobody knows how to accomplish the transition in detail, because this has never been done before. Most previous energy transitions were driven by opportunity, not policy. And they were usually additive, with new energy resources piling onto old ones (we still use firewood, even though we’ve added coal, hydro, oil, natural gas, and nuclear to the mix).

Since the renewable energy revolution will require trading our currently dominant energy sources (fossil fuels) for alternative ones (mostly wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and biomass) that have different characteristics, there are likely to be some hefty challenges along the way.

Therefore, it makes sense to start with the low-hanging fruit and with a plan in place, then revise our plan frequently as we gain practical experience. Several organizations have already formulated plans for transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy. David Fridley, staff scientist of the energy analysis program at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and I have been working for the past few months to analyze and assess those plans and have a book in the works titled Our Renewable Future. Here’s a very short summary, tailored mostly to the United States, of what we’ve found.

Nearly everyone agrees that the easiest way to kick-start the transition would be to replace coal with solar and wind power for electricity generation. That would require building lots of panels and turbines while regulating coal out of existence. Distributed generation and storage (rooftop solar panels with home- or business-scale battery packs) will help. Replacing natural gas will be harder, because gas-fired “peaking” plants are often used to buffer the intermittency of industrial-scale wind and solar inputs to the grid (see Level Two).

Electricity accounts for less than a quarter of all final energy used in the United States. What about the rest of the energy we depend on? Since solar and wind produce electricity, it makes sense to electrify as much of our energy usage as we can. For example, we could heat and cool most buildings with electric air-source heat pumps, replacing natural gas- or oil-fueled furnaces. We could also begin switching out all our gas cooking stoves for electric stoves.

Nearly everyone agrees that the easiest way to kick-start the transition would be to replace coal with solar and wind power.
Transportation represents a large swath of energy consumption, and personal automobiles account for most of that. We could reduce oil consumption substantially if we all drove electric cars (replacing 250 million gasoline-fueled automobiles will take time and money, but will eventually result in energy and financial savings). Promoting walking, bicycling, and public transit will take much less time and investment.

Buildings will require substantial retrofitting for energy efficiency (this will again take time and investment, but will offer still more opportunities for savings). Building codes should be strengthened to require net-zero-energy or near-net-zero-energy performance for new construction. More energy-efficient appliances will also help.

The food system is a big energy consumer, with fossil fuels used in the manufacture of fertilizers, food processing, and transportation. We could reduce a lot of that fuel consumption by increasing the market share of organic local foods. While we’re at it, we could begin sequestering enormous amounts of atmospheric carbon in topsoil by promoting farming practices that build soil rather than deplete it—as is being done, for example, in the Marin Carbon Project.

If we got a good start in all these areas, we could achieve at least a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions in 10 to 20 years.

Solar and wind technologies have a drawback: They provide energy intermittently. When they become dominant in our overall energy mix, we will have to accommodate that intermittency in various ways. We’ll need substantial amounts of grid-level energy storage as well as a major grid overhaul to get the electricity sector close to 100 percent renewables (replacing natural gas in electricity generation). We’ll also need to start timing our energy usage to coincide with the availability of sunlight and wind energy. That in itself will present both technological and behavioral hurdles.

We could achieve at least a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions in 10 to 20 years.
After we switch to electric cars, the rest of the transport sector will require longer-term and sometimes more expensive substitutions. We could reduce our need for cars (which require a lot of energy for their manufacture and decommissioning) by increasing the density of our cities and suburbs and reorienting them to public transit, bicycling, and walking. We could electrify all motorized human transport by building more electrified public transit and intercity passenger rail lines. Heavy trucks could run on fuel cells, but it would be better to minimize trucking by expanding freight rail. Transport by ship could employ sails to increase fuel efficiency (this is already being done on a tiny scale by the MS Beluga Skysails, a commercial container cargo ship partially powered by a 1,700-square-foot, computer-controlled kite), but relocalization or deglobalization of manufacturing would be a necessary co-strategy to reduce the need for shipping.

Much of the manufacturing sector already runs on electricity, but there are exceptions—and some of these will offer significant challenges. Many raw materials for manufacturing processes either are fossil fuels (feedstocks for plastics and other petrochemical-based materials) or require fossil fuels for mining or transformation (e.g., most metals). Considerable effort will be needed to replace fossil-fuel-based industrial materials and to recycle non-renewable materials more completely, significantly reducing the need for mining.

If we did all these things, while also building far, far more solar panels and wind turbines, we could achieve roughly an 80 percent reduction in emissions compared to our current level.

Doing away with the last 20 percent of our current fossil-fuel consumption is going to take still more time, research, and investment—as well as much more behavioral adaptation.

Just one example: We currently use enormous amounts of concrete for all kinds of construction. The crucial ingredient in concrete is cement. Cement-making requires high heat, which could theoretically be supplied by sunlight, electricity, or hydrogen—but that will entail a nearly complete redesign of the process.

While with Level One we began a shift in food systems by promoting local organic food, driving carbon emissions down further will require finishing that job by making all food production organic, and requiring all agriculture to build topsoil rather than deplete it. Eliminating all fossil fuels in food systems will also entail a substantial redesign of those systems to minimize processing, packaging, and transport.

The communications sector—which uses mining and high-heat processes for the production of phones, computers, servers, wires, photo-optic cables, cell towers, and more—presents some really knotty problems. The only good long-term solution in this sector is to make devices that are built to last a very long time and then to repair them and fully recycle and remanufacture them when absolutely needed. The Internet could be maintained via the kinds of low-tech, asynchronous networks now being pioneered in poor nations, using relatively little power. An example might be the AirJaldi networks in India, which provide Internet access to about 20,000 remote users in six states, using mostly solar power.

Back in the transport sector: We’ve already made shipping more efficient with sails, but doing away with petroleum altogether will require costly substitutes (fuel cells or biofuels). One way or another, global trade will have to shrink.

We may have to write off aviation as anything but a specialty transport mode.
There is no good drop-in substitute for aviation fuels; we may have to write off aviation as anything but a specialty transport mode. Planes running on hydrogen or biofuels are an expensive possibility, as are dirigibles filled with (non-renewable) helium, any of which could help us maintain vestiges of air travel. Paving and repairing roads without oil-based asphalt is possible, but will require an almost complete redesign of processes and equipment.

Great attention will have to be given to the interdependent linkages and supply chains connecting various sectors (communications, mining, and transport knit together most of what we do in industrial societies). Some links in supply chains will be hard to substitute, and chains can be brittle: A problem with even one link can imperil the entire chain.

The good news is that if we do all these things, we can get beyond zero carbon emissions; that is, with sequestration of carbon in soils and forests, we could actually reduce atmospheric carbon with each passing year.

This plan features “levels”; the more obvious word choice would have been “stages.” The latter implies a sequence—starting with Stage One, ending with Stage Three—yet accomplishing the energy transition quickly will require accelerating research and development to address many Level Two and Three issues at the same time we’re moving rapidly forward on Level One tasks. For planning purposes, it’s useful to know what can be done relatively quickly and cheaply, and what will take long, expensive, sustained effort.

How much energy will be available to us at the end of the transition? It’s hard to say, as there are many variables, including rates of investment and the capabilities of renewable energy technology without fossil fuels to back them up and to power their manufacture, at least in the early stages. This “how much” question reflects the understandable concern to maintain current levels of comfort and convenience as we switch energy sources. But in this regard, it is good to keep ecological footprint analysis in mind.

According to the Global Footprint Network’s Living Planet Report 2014, the amount of productive land and sea available to each person on Earth in order to live in a way that’s ecologically sustainable is 1.7 global hectares. The current per capita ecological footprint in the United States is 6.8 global hectares. Asking whether renewable energy could enable Americans to maintain their current lifestyle is therefore equivalent to asking whether renewable energy can keep us living unsustainably. The clear answer is: only temporarily, if at all. So why bother trying? We should aim for a sustainable level of energy and material consumption, which on average is significantly lower than at present.

One way or another, the energy transition will represent an enormous societal shift. During past shifts, there were winners and losers. In the current instance, if we don’t pay great attention to equity issues, it is entirely possible that only the rich will have access to renewable energy, and therefore, ultimately, to any substantial amounts of energy at all.

A truly all-renewable economy may be very different from the American economy we know today.
The collective weight of these challenges and opportunities suggests that a truly all-renewable economy may be very different from the American economy we know today. The renewable economy will likely be slower and more local; it will probably be a conserver economy rather than a consumer economy. It will also likely feature far less economic inequality. Economic growth may reverse itself as per capita consumption shrinks; if we are to avert a financial crash and perhaps a revolution as well, we may need a different economic organizing principle. In her recent book on climate change, This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein asks whether capitalism can be preserved in the era of climate change. While it probably can (capitalism needs profit more than growth), that may not be a good idea because, in the absence of overall growth, profits for some will have to come at a cost to everyone else.

This short article only addresses the energy transition in the United States; other nations will face different challenges and opportunities. Poor nations will have to find ways to provide all their energy from renewable sources while advancing in terms of the U.N. Human Development Index. Nations especially vulnerable to sea level rise may have other immediate priorities to deal with. And nations with low populations but very large solar or wind resources may find themselves in an advantageous position if they are able to obtain foreign investment capital without too many strings attached.

The most important thing to understand about the energy transition is that it’s not optional. Delay would be fatal. It’s time to make a plan—however sketchy, however challenging—and run with it, revising it as we go.

Yes Magazine

The AirJaldi's solar powered low-energy relays are acknowledged in an article dealing with the transition to renewable energy

Deemed as a fundamental righ t by the Supreme Court of India, the Internet is an ‘every man’s tool’, which harbours growth and communication. Unfortunately, Internet access, especially in developing nations such as India, is largely concentrated in urban areas owing to connectivity challenges. However, propelled by government initiatives to bring internet access to remote areas and leveraging Wi-Fi technology, various ISPs are foraying into the rural segment. Leading the pack is AirJaldi Networks, a social enterprise, innovator and implementer of technically and economically viable Internet connectivity solutions for rural areas operational under the parent company Rural Broadband Pvt. Ltd.

A Class A ISP(nationwide license), AirJaldi’s networks serve various organizations, enterprise, non profits, community based and individual clients spread across Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Covering around 30,000 sq. km. and reaching over 400,000 registered users and 420,000+ beneficiaries, the social innovator has come a long way in its mission to create sustainable broadband Internet networks and related

offerings for rural areas.

Fixed Wireless & Wi-Fi Hotspot Connections
With the growth of high speed data services, the demand for higher speeds at affordable prices grows. Customers also increasingly require mobility within their premises and the ability to use multiple wireless and wired devices. AirJaldi strives hard to meet these demands within the constraints of a commercial enterprise. Driven by uncompromising quality and professionalism, AirJaldi offers fast and reliable internet connectivity and support services to delivery hubs, delivery partner centres and any other related entity requiring connectivity.




Uncompromised Service
Maintaining stable connectivity and the time at which problems are addressed is often central to a connectivity dependent enterprise’s success. Well experienced at what they do, AirJaldi’s ground teams are rarely more than two hours away from a physical troubleshoot.

With a strong presence on ground, the enterprise provides customers with flexible packages and services that cater to their needs be it provisioning of a high speed link to a remote BPO, video streaming support services for public functions in rural areas, or an affordable hotspot service to a user in a remote village.

Rendering solid support, AirJaldi operates a 24x7 phone and online customer service. Additionally, most clients are intimately familiar with their local AirJaldi teams who are accessible for help as and when required. Both the local teams and the customer service are supported by the company’s central network management team, which has members with experience of over 10 years in the field of rural internet provision.

Being Future Ready
Working hard to bring connectivity to rural areas, AirJaldi is foraying into new technologies such as new Wi-Fi protocols that are coming up, the possibility of additional radio frequencies, such as TV White Spaces (TVWS), E-band & V-band becoming unlicensed or lightly licensed and the use of fibre optic technologies in areas of high density/high demand. The company has also recently re tailored its networks’ design to allow for lower latency and higher content availability, both factors that impact user experience. “We are also working on a number of IoT support initiatives that we hope will become public soon,” says Tenzin Gompo, Head of Networks, AirJaldi. With support from Microsoftas well as other government, institutional and private players, AirJaldi is now planning to expand its activities by 5-10 times within the next two years. 

An overview of AirJaldi's work by Silicon India

AirJaldi: Bringing Rural India Online

When Manish Kumar first came to the village of Harisal in western Indian July, he didn’t think he could stay there for very long.

“It was monsoon, so it was difficult to reach because the roads were bad. There was no phone signal, and the electricity only comes on for a few hours in the evening. The people there are farmers, so they wake up early. They work all day, and then in the evening, they eat dinner before dark. And then they go to sleep. There’s nothing else to do.”

But the typical agricultural setting of Harisal was about to change. Kumar, the network head of a rural internet service provider AirJaldi had come to transform it into India’s first digital village, under a scheme backed by the Indian government and software giant Microsoft.

“We set up a Wi-Fi tower and three smaller hotspots. At first, people were struggling to get online, they didn’t know how to sign on, and we had to teach them. Now, when I visit the village, the kids come to us and teach us how to get the internet working.”

About 2,000 villagers live in Harisal. There are only five or six laptops in the village, but almost every household has a smartphone. For them, the new WiFi connection changed their lives overnight.

“We finally feel connected to the rest of the world,” says Jagdishkumar Someshwar Sirsat, the headmaster of the village school. “It’s made small tasks easier. For example, we had to give attendance records to the state government. Before, someone would have to hand deliver those to the government office in the city. Now, we can just fill out a form online, and its done,” he says.

“And for the children – sometimes the textbooks don’t have enough information, or some things are not up to date. Now that they have internet, they can go online and look up whatever they’re interested in. For the older kids, we’re using online tutorials on YouTube and educational video blogs to teach them new things. They love it.”

Sheetal Thorat, a doctor in Harisal, says internet connections could save lives. “In the village, there are no specialists for the heart or brain. There’s just me and two other field doctors for the whole village, and we’re general practitioners. Now that we have WiFi, we can set up consultations with heart or brain specialists in Mumbai, and then they can send back reports online.”

Microsoft funded the project, and plans to get 50 more villages around Harisal online. Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman of Microsoft India, says its project to get villages online is philanthropic. “We don’t have any commercial interest in these projects. We want telecom and other internet service providers to use the connectivity to provide citizens with useful services,” he says. Microsoft has also previously said it would be good for its own business if more people were online.

Microsoft is not alone in the race to get India online. Google has launched a scheme to provide free public Wi-Fi at 100 railway stations. About 3.5m users have already connected to Google’s station WiFi service, with an estimated 15,000 people coming online for the first time every day thanks to the scheme.

“We want to expand to new venues, like cafes and malls, to help more people get online, and we’re looking for strategic and forwarding-thinking partners to work with on this effort,” says Caeser Sengupta, vice-president of Google’s “Next Billion Users” team.

Last year, Facebook tried to launch Free Basics, which would have allowed people in rural India free access to websites chosen by the company, but the plan was blocked after millions wrote to the telecoms authority saying the scheme would give Facebook too much power. Now, the company has come up with a new scheme, Express WiFi, which will allow those in rural India to buy fast, cheap and reliable mobile data packs.

India’s rapidly developing economy, and increasing smartphone penetration presents a huge opportunity for tech firms, who are looking for new markets to expand their products and services, as growth in western economies slows.

According to the World Bank’s latest figures, 26% of India’s 1.25 billion population has internet access. In 2014–15, 60 million, equivalent to the entire UK population, went online for the first time. About 900 million people in India, mostly in rural areas, are offline.

“India is the only major economy in the world that had a year-on-year growth in internet and smartphone users,” says Vikas Kothari, tech analyst at venture capital firm Lightbox. “Large players like Google, Facebook and Microsoft are looking for their next set of billion users and India looks the most promising.”

Internet access could transform economy
Facebook has not yet released details of how much profit it expects to make from its Express WiFi service, or how much investment will be needed to subsidise rural data access, but the company says that internet access will benefit everybody.

“Internet access means opportunity. It enables progress. It improves knowledge, economies, lives and communities,” says a Facebook spokesperson.

The tech companies may appear benevolent, but Kothari says they will all benefit if India’s internet accessibility increases. “In a [digital] ecosystem when infrastructure improves, the biggest beneficiaries are the large players,” he explains.

Kothari says the tech giants see India as a long-term investment. “The most visited sites or apps in India are Google Search, Play Store, YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook. Google and Facebook’s business models don’t depend on a fee, but on user data. If more people use their products, the more data they get, thus increasing their ad revenues.”

For India, better internet infrastructure could transform the economy, and the lives of ordinary citizens. “Improved connectivity will further democratise access to education, healthcare and financial services. People in remote areas will get access to skill-development courses, tertiary telemedicine and reports on agriculture and commodity prices, thus improving their lives,” says Kothari.

The Guardian describes AirJaldi's work in Harisal, Maharashtra, as part of "the race to get India online"

Google, Facebook and Microsoft race to get 1 billion Indians online

Press information Bureau, Government of India, 28 May, 2017 

Just over 600 kilometres from India’s financial capital, Mumbai, nestled in the Satpura range of mountains, amid a forested area exists the village of Harisal. Characterised by a lack of roads, power, mobile connectivity and minimal public infrastructure, the villages of this Melghat region of Maharashtra are inhabited by the Korku tribal community. Malnutrition, infant and maternal Malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality rates have plagued this community for years.

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Maharashtra Government with Microsoft Corporation and other partners in August 2015 led the way for various activities under a digitally oriented project that aimed at addressing several issues simultaneously.

Once the alliances were done, work followed at breakneck speed. New and innovative technologies such as TV White Space and Telemedicine helped to make internet facility available across the public offices and village areas at a nominal cost. The project has various components.  Air Jaldi Telemedicine is the use of Telecommunication and Information Technology to provide health care services from geographically remote locations. It helps to eliminate distance barriers and improve access to medical services that were often not available in rural areas and also helps to save lives in critical care and emergency situations. eHealth Centre (eHC) is a Hewlett-Packard Enterprise-CSIR initiative where information technology will be used to enable local healthcare services and telemedicine while collecting data pertaining to patients’ health and related issues. Citizens of the area now have access to quality medical advice, Telemedicine, with the Hospitals of Amravati and Mumbai.

A Digital Village Harisal Committee with 20 qualified youth from the village itself, has been formed to seek suggestions, monitor work progress and capacity building. A Digital Village Workshop for all Engineering College Professors and Students has been organised. The existing Primary Health Centre has been upgraded with advanced eye care equipment and Ophthalmic Technician training from LV Eye Institute, Hyderabad.

Under the e-District Project, Digital Signature Certificate includes Birth and Death Certificates, Ration Cards, Land Records, Caste Certificate, Income Certificate, Non-Creamy Layer Certificate, Temporary Residence Certificate, Senior Citizen Certificate, Solvency Certificate, etc. Smart Ration Card has made the Public Distribution System more transparent and efficient

. Agriculture Services are being provided through Mobile Apps such as mKrishi, Kisan Suvidha, AgMarknet for weather alert, dealers, market prices, agro advisories, plant protection, etc. Farmers are already trained for the apps and benefit from an agriculture productivity point of view. 

Indeed, Digital Village Harisal project implementation has made it possible for Citizens of Harisal and Melghat region to avail good quality health care, school education, banking and agricultural services using digital technology deployment. Digital Village Harisal Project opens the doors for youth and citizens to avail the benefits of skill development, local business opportunities, employment, etc.


Harisal today is perhaps the country’s first digitally smart village.

AirJaldi’s work in the Digital Village Harisal project noted by the Government of India Press Information Bureau.

A Digital Heaven indeed

The Times of India, July 6 2016
by Padmaparna Ghosh

Even as the new government has promised broadband networks across rural India, private agencies are making big strides in ‘last mile connectivity’, helping those living in remote areas get online

Last month, when Michael Ginguld visited a school in rural Jharkhand, he saw a group of 10 animated girls huddled around a computer. They took little notice of him, as they were busy looking at the Wikipedia page on Islam.

“Though 30% of the class is Muslim, they didn’t know much about the religion, so the headmaster asked them to research and make a presentation on it,” says Ginguld, founder, director (strategy and operations), Rural Broadband Pvt Ltd (RBPL), adding, “This is a real life example of the world of information that the internet can provide.”

RBPL is among a handful of enterprises working towards providing reliable, constant broadband connectivity to rural sectors, areas long ignored by larger internet service providers (ISPs) and state agencies because of low returns against high investments. Even though the new government has just announced that broadband connectivity across rural India is a prime focus, digital penetration in these areas is currently 6-7% though, says Ginguld, real broadband connectivity is about 1-2%. Private agencies like RBPL are supplying last mile connectivity by literally ‘pulling’ connections from towns/cities at the edge of connected world to remote areas, many of which have not even seen a computer yet.

Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), a Delhi-based not-for-profit that seeks sustainable information communication technology solutions for underserved and unreached regions and communities, focuses on districts under the government’s Backward Regions Grant Fund list. Wireless for Communities, a DEF initiative, has set up several broadband networks across rural Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya. “We focus mostly on tribal areas because accessibility is a big problem there. And those who want to connect are mostly illiterate, and therefore more dependent on audio-visual tools, a good part of which works on broadband only,” says Osama Manzar, founder-director of DEF.

RBPL, which operates under the name AirJaldi, was initiated in 2005 by a group of hacktivists in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, in the early days of broadband. Today, it has seven networks across six states of varying topography (HP, Uttarakhand , Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) with plans to eventually expand to rural areas nationwide. “In 2014, a 128 kbps connection is not internet. I have seen computer labs in schools that haven’t been operational for years,” says Ginguld, who joined the company in 2007. “When private users see a real internet connection, it changes things. Sure, they might use it to go to Jabong but they might also go to Khan Academy or open a business.”

Unlike the very few existing broadband networks in remote areas that behave like any other rural infrastructure set-up (there will be power lines but no electricity, roads but no state transport), DEF invests in a long and slow arc of change, from introducing the magical world of internet to capacity building. The task of finding customers in rural areas and building the demand-side is not as simple as selling a connection in an urban area. “We create our own engineers and experts, teaching them how to set up wireless connectivity and modems, even small tower making as we can’t get engineers over to these sites again and again,” says Manzar, whose company also sets up `active points’, or ready-to-use connections, in community centres.

“Gradually, people buy their own small devices or start cyber cafes and shops. It is a long road.”

Setting up these networks is a lonely business. “You can’t do this with a click of a button or by just providing a wire. ISPs are not interested because of the high cost of cable laying for broadband and conversions are low,” says Manzar, while Ginguld adds, “This won’t make you a millionaire in three years. You have to accept that this is a social enterprise and you do it because you think it is important.” RBPL focuses on areas that can break even between 18-24 months. “We had to cross this impasse of high cost and low demand, so we developed our system of recruitment and training (staff of 40) of locals,” says Ginguld.

DEF provides connections at Rs 500. 1,000 per month of access point use at Rs 20 for 30 minutes. AirJaldi charges individuals and institutions like banks, schools, etc between Rs 525 and Rs 1,000; both connections are between 256 and 512 kbps. Ginguld admits it isn’t cheap and that in Jharkhand, they even had to lower the charges. “I stand behind these prices because my service is solid. I need to prove that rural networks can work economically. All I can say is we are in the fourth year of operation, completely in the black, not leveraged, no debt. I don’t have a yacht yet but we don’t owe anyone money,” he states.

Beyond these revenue models, there are stories of transformation. In Garhwal, for instance, AirJaldi’s network through deep ravines surrounded by steep mountains has allowed micro-finance institutions and NGOs to operate.

Businesses, such as B2R, a rural BPO that operates seven centres, can think of expansion and Bhupat Singh, who works with State Bank of India in Haripur in Guna district, can open new bank accounts. Singh, who now uses DEF’s Guna Wireless Network, was earlier using a data-card and sometimes had to travel 9-10 kilometres to access internet for work if his data-card failed. Ashish Singh, who owns a restaurant-play club near Guna Railway Station, MP, couldn’t run his online gaming business, which requires a high speed internet connection because the BSNL network used to go down frequently. Today he uses a DEF wireless network. Rural areas’ primary demands are entertainment services, government services, which have failed entire rural populations for ages, and education services, much of which requires broadband.

When it comes to private users, Ginguld laughingly says they look for three Ps — “People for social websites, email and chat. Pop for music and YouTube. And Porn -I would love to say it doesn’t figure but it will always be there. But we have noted that now social websites are much bigger than porn. And I am sure people will also move from watching football to learning physics.”

The Times of India

The Times of India describes AirJaldi's work in rural Jharkhand, as part of an article about rural connectivity in India

Casting the net wide

The New York Times, October 25 2015
by Vindu Goel

Narendra Nagar, India — On a rooftop at the Shri Kunjapuri temple, located a mile high in the foothills of the Himalayas, a metal tower with five microwave relay dishes pokes a bit further into the sky. It does not look like much, and neither the resident monkeys nor the visiting pilgrims take much notice of it.

But that tower and others like it, parts of a communications network spanning 2,500 square miles of mountainous terrain, are the key to Facebook’s little-known ambition in India: to build a network of cheap Wi-Fi access points that would help residents in remote villages, like those here in the Garhwal region near the Nepalese border, log on to the Internet almost as easily as people do in the West. The dishes relay signals to and from a base station in the valley below, other mountain towers and, ultimately, Internet access points in about 40 villages.

AirJaldi is a top provider of web access in rural India.Credit Poulomi Basu for The New York Times

In one of those hamlets, Narendra Nagar, the main street is bathed in high-speed Wi-Fi — a luxury in a country where cellular data networks are generally slow and unreliable.

The wireless Internet service, called Express Wi-Fi, is not free. For 10 rupees, or about 15 cents, customers can buy one day’s access to 100 megabytes of data; $3 will buy 20 gigabytes of data, which can be used over the course of a month. Those prices are roughly one-third the cost of similar prepaid data plans from Airtel, the most reliable cellular operator in the mountains.

Recently, a steady stream of young men stopped by the clothing shop that is the sole vendor of Express Wi-Fi in the village to buy a bit of data and chat with the proprietor, Maken Singh Aswal.

Ujjwal Kohli, left, and his sister, Uttkarsha, using mobile devices. Mr. Kohli, 17, said he spends about four hours a day on the Internet and uses an Express Wi-Fi plan to supplement his Airtel data plan.Credit Poulomi Basu for The New York Times

One of Mr. Aswal’s customers, Ujjwal Kohli, a 17-year-old high school student, said he spends about four hours a day on the Internet. He uses Facebook, chats with relatives in New Delhi and plays fighting games. The Express Wi-Fi plan supplemented his Airtel data plan, but he said it had a major drawback. “It only works on one side of the house,” he said, gesturing around the main room of his family’s small home.

That was a common complaint about Express Wi-Fi, which has a single access point in this town of 5,000 people and focuses the signal on the main business strip.

Express Wi-Fi is part of Internet.org, Facebook’s broad plan to bring the Internet to the billions of people around the world who are without it. One of the most prominent initiatives of Internet.org is a package of free basic Internet services that the company is now offering through local cellular carriers in 25 countries, including India.

But improving physical access to the Internet is an important part of Internet.org, too, and India has become a prime testing ground for the company.

Facebook has a clear incentive to provide better Internet in rural India: Everyone stopping at Mr. Aswal’s shop said that Facebook and WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Facebook, were among the apps they used the most. Across India, Facebook already has about 130 million users — only the United States has more users — and wider use will eventually translate to more advertising revenue for the company.

A series of towers on the hillsides of Narendra Nagar is part of a communications network spanning 2,500 square miles of mountainous terrain.Credit Poulomi Basu for The New York Times

During a tour of Internet.org outposts in the Garhwal region, Munish Seth, who heads Facebook’s connectivity efforts in India, downplayed the commercial implications. “My mission is to connect people,” Mr. Seth said. “We hope they will connect to Facebook, but that’s not the primary mission.” Facebook has no desire to enter directly into the Internet service business. Its expertise is in software and network technology. So Facebook has partnered with an Indian rural Internet access provider, AirJaldi, to manage the actual installation and operation of the Express Wi-Fi service. For AirJaldi, which is based in Dharamsala and mostly provides Internet services to large customers like the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan government in exile, the project is a chance to figure out how to make money serving a widely dispersed customer base. “If you want to scale up, you have to present a sustainable economic model,” said Michael Ginguld, AirJaldi’s director of strategy and operations.

Mr. Ginguld estimated that 30,000 people in the region, which has a population of about 200,000, had logged on to the Express Wi-Fi service, with maybe 6,000 of those using it daily. The companies have tested various pricing models, including offering some service for free, but have concluded that charging a consistent, low price is the best approach. Once Facebook and AirJaldi work out all the kinks, they plan to take the service to other parts of the country.

An important cog in the system is the merchant in each village that sells the service. Facebook and AirJaldi decided that there should be just one authorized seller per village to give that person a strong incentive to sell as many subscriptions as possible.

“That’s how connectivity spread in terms of satellite TV in India,” said Chris Daniels, the global head of the Internet.org project. “There was an entrepreneur in every town who had a dish. That’s how landline telephony spread. There was an entrepreneur in every town who had a phone and you could buy minutes of talk time on it. So it’s a model that has proved to work in the past and we’re simply applying that to Internet connectivity.”

A version of this article appears in print on 10/26/2015, on page B4 of the NewYork edition with the headline: On Himalayan Hillsides, Wi­Fi Comes to Hamlets.

The New York Times

The New York Times describes AirJaldi's and Facebook's work on creating a network of rural WiFi hotspots in northern India

AirJaldi in the news