Internet Society joins Partner2Connect Coalition to expand global Internet access

WASHINGTON – The Internet Society today announced it is joining the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, an initiative led by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that aims to foster meaningful connectivity and digital transformation in the hardest-to-connect communities around the world. In joining the coalition, the Internet Society is making pledges to support 100 complementary solutions to connect the unconnected, and to train 10,000 people to build and maintain Internet infrastructure, all by 2025.

Despite progress in bridging the global digital divide in recent years, nearly 3 billion people remain offline. Launched this past March by the International Telecommunications Union, Partner2Connect supports the implementation of the U.N. Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, and calls on governments, businesses, civil society, and international organizations to mobilize the resources needed to create a more equitable digital world and to bring more people online by 2030. Organizations can make pledges offering financial, policy, advocacy, and/or programmatic support.

The Internet Society works with communities worldwide to fund and build these "do it yourself" networks and trains people with the skills needed to run and maintain their own Internet infrastructure.

As part of the Coalition, the Internet Society pledges, by 2025, to:

• Support 100 complementary solutions to connect the unconnected. Building on existing efforts to expand community networks, the Internet Society aims to increase the number of community networks in remote, rural and underserved areas around the world, and promote an enabling policy environment that will allow these networks to grow and thrive over the long-term.
• Train 10,000 people to build and maintain Internet infrastructure. In addition to laying the groundwork for community networks and other innovative connectivity solutions to grow and thrive long-term, the Internet Society will provide communities with the resources needed to build and maintain Internet infrastructure and grow the Internet. The Internet Society is in a unique position to contribute to this effort through its robust e-learning platform which has trained over 9,000 individuals in the past year alone. The organization is currently developing new courses on community networks that will launch later this year.

Read the full press release here.

Internet Society