Internet Governance Forum 2014

(posted for Stephane Boyera, traveling in Kenya and Uganda)The cost of acsescing internet and therefore the Web is indeed a barrier. I just want to make two comments:- the prices are largely impacted by regulations, taxation and competition. It is essential that government promote access and use of the Web by adopting appropriate regulatory framework. This is a point we are making each time we are meeting with officials and government.- the second point, which is more in the scope of the Web Foundation, is on the notion of return on investment. It is indeed expensive to access the Web today, but it is far more important to note that there is a lack of content and services that could really improve the lives of people acsescing them. As a comparison, telecom operators thought 6-7 years ago that people in developing countries would not be able to afford mobile telephony. We know the situation today. This was due to both a change in the business model (prepaid vs postpaid) and to the fact that person-to-person communication really is a critical service in many activities, and really ease and improve people lives.I believe that it is possible to create a circle of value where new locally-oriented content and services will motivate more people to use the Web, which in turns will extend the market, bring more players and competitions, and attract entrepreneurs, lower price of access, enable more services to be developed, and attracting more people (and so on).For more details on this topic, you might be interested to look at the related section in the .