Tech Roundup, Aug. 30, 2019 | How Brazil’s digitally excluded create their own internet

You’re reading The Brazilian Report‘s weekly tech roundup, a digest of the most important news on technology and innovation in Brazil. This week’s topics: How Brazil’s digitally excluded create their own internet, Kaszek Ventures raises USD 600 million to invest in Latin American startups. The long-lasting consequences of Brazil’s lack of innovation. Agritechs in Brazil. AT&T deal with Time Warner has the government’s blessing. Happy reading!

How Brazil’s digitally excluded create their own internet

About 30 percent of Brazil’s population had no access to the internet in 2017, when the country’s official statistics agency made its latest survey. Getting out of this digital hole is not easy, as most of these people live in areas that are not economically attractive for broadband providers. But many have overcome technical hurdles, regulatory red tape, and the lack of cooperation from authorities to find themselves a way to connect to the web.

This “internet of people” comes about after residents scout their neighborhood to find out which houses want broadband connections. Then they buy themselves routers, cables, a computer to act as a server, and a metal structure and directional antenna to make a home-made transmission tower—to be erected in the highest spot of the community and capture a broadband signal from an ISP.

The community must elect an administrator, who is responsible for collecting payments and dealing with the service provider. They also must find ways to control internet usage, which can be tricky when multiple houses are connected to a broadband plan that would usually serve only one household.

This solution has been used by quilombos (ancestral slave communities, often in very remote areas), as well as in certain favelas in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The effects have been instant. These populations have been able to increase their access to basic services, as well as learn more about their rights. In the community of Cajari, in the countryside of Maranhão, the first use of...