28 June 2021
Giga, a global initiative launched jointly by ITU and UNICEF in 2019, sets the goal of providing connectivity to every school in the world.
Giga serves as a platform to create the infrastructure necessary to provide digital connectivity to an entire country, for every community, and for every citizen. It is about using schools as hubs to identify demand and to provide high speed connectivity to communities and thus to support our children in a world where we are all increasingly digital. Connectivity for schools means connectivity to our future generations, investment in knowledge, digital skills, equal rights and opportunities.
Central Asia became one of the pioneering regions to contribute in achieving of a very ambitious goal of Giga – connect every school in the world to the Internet by 2030.
Kazakhstan is committed to connect schools in the most challenging environments in the country:
- Through school and connectivity mapping, Giga has identified 105 public schools that require broadband connectivity or immediate improvement. 60 schools, including those located in prisons, were identified as unconnected.
- Giga will test innovative solutions of last-mile disruptive technologies to connect the hardest-to-reach schools, to receive unlimited data and 10 Mbps as a minimum per school. Connected schools will report the quality of connectivity in real-time.
- Telecommunications industry willing to implement innovative technologies and business models to connect some of the unconnected or under connected schools in Kazakhstan are encouraged to participate.
Kyrgyzstan is testing solutions to connect schools in mountainous and remote areas:
- 20 mountainous schools remain unconnected as they are far away from current fiber points of access and therefore connectivity costs far exceed national average.
- While the government has connected 99.4% of schools in the country to fiber optic or WiMax, Giga will explore the cost-efficiency, speed, reliability and sustainability of alternative innovative solutions (LEO, light beams, etc.).
- Providers willing to participate will also be included in a pilot to pay for connectivity services with crypto and based on performance.
Uzbekistan is rolling out the connectivity program:
- Leveraging the network of 200 schools that will be connected by Uzbekistan in the following 2 years, the pilot will launch an innovation challenge for the industry to provide technology solutions and business models to redistribute the connectivity from schools and extend it wirelessly to the community.
- Request for Proposals launched to extend internet from connected schools to surrounding communities in a 1 km radius.
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