Alliance for Affordable Internet Launches to Stimulate Global Policy Reform To Lower Access Costs To Users

The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) is a new coalition aimed at leading policy and regulatory reform and spurring action to drive down artificially high Internet prices in developing countries.

By advocating for open, competitive and innovative broadband markets, A4AI aims to help access prices fall to below 5% of monthly income worldwide, a target set by the UN Broadband Commission. A4AI’s 30+ members reach across boundaries of geography, industry, and organization type and include governments, companies, and civil society organizations from both developed and developing countries. Members share a belief that that policy reform, underpinned by robust research and genuine knowledge-sharing, is one of the best ways to unlock rapid gains in Internet penetration rates. The Alliance was initiated by the World Wide Web Foundation, and its honorary chairperson is Dr Bitange Ndemo, the immediate former Permanent Secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communications, who is widely regarded as the father of Broadband in Kenya.

• The Alliance will begin in-country engagements with three to four countries by the end of 2013, expanding to at least twelve countries by the end of 2015.
• Members have committed to a set of policy best practices that will guide advocacy work at the international level.
• Key policy levers to drive prices down include allowing innovative allocation of spectrum, promoting infrastructure sharing, and increasing transparency and public participation in regulatory decisions.
• A4AI will produce an annual ‘Affordability Report’, with the first edition being unveiled in December 2013.