Connecting the Unconnected Funding Program

Greater prospects exist for folks with Internet entry.

The Connecting the Unconnected funding program helps communities and native organizations working to construct and develop Internet infrastructure to attach folks dwelling in rural, distant, and low-income areas. This consists of initiatives reminiscent of neighborhood networks, municipal networks, cooperatives, and different types of complementary entry options.

If you’d wish to be taught extra about constructing and sustaining Internet infrastructure, yow will discover all the pieces you might want to know in the Community Network Do-It-Yourself Toolkit.

Program Objectives

• Strengthen communities and native initiatives which are connecting the unconnected.
• Develop new, revolutionary options to develop the Internet to achieve rural, remoted, and low-income areas in all areas of the world.

Focus Areas

1. Building new complementary entry options: Projects that target offering Internet connectivity to underserved or unconnected communities. This may very well be accomplished by constructing neighborhood networks, municipal networks, cooperatives, and different types of complementary entry options.
2. Expanding present complementary entry options: Projects that target increasing the connectivity of present complementary entry options to attach extra folks, enhance present connectivity, or allow entry to new communities.

Eligibility

Funding to construct and develop complementary entry options to attach the unconnected is offered to communities and organizations who’re straight concerned in the planning and constructing of native Internet infrastructure.

Communities and organizations that apply will need to have:

• A clearly recognized particular person or group accountable for finishing up the challenge by its completion and reporting.
• Support from the local people that can profit from the new or expanded Internet infrastructure.
• A sustainability plan to make sure that the infrastructure constructed can keep operational in the long run.
• The aim of connecting the native infrastructure to the Internet.
• An official checking account of their identify (based mostly on their authorized registration).

Application Review Process

There are two home windows throughout which purposes might be accepted:

• 4 February to 31 March 2025 at 21:00 UTC.
• 15 July to 27 August 2025 at 21:00 UTC.

Applications are reviewed by the Internet Society, the Internet Society Foundation, and exterior consultants to find out in the event that they meet the eligibility necessities and are aligned with the focus areas. This course of might take as much as ten (10) weeks.

Selection Criteria

• A transparent and visual want for the prompt Internet infrastructure deployment in the proposed neighborhood—underserved or unconnected.
• A clearly recognized particular person or group accountable for finishing up the challenge by its completion and report on its outcomes.
• Proven assist from the local people that can profit from the prompt new or expanded Internet infrastructure.
• A sustainability plan to make sure that the infrastructure constructed can keep operational in the long run.
• The aim of connecting the native infrastructure to the Internet.
• A challenge plan that lasts as much as 24 months.

Additional standards for a profitable application:

• Availability of native know-how companions.
• General enterprise administration abilities inside the challenge’s group.
• Technical abilities inside the neighborhood.
• Availability of native social infrastructure (colleges, libraries, hospitals, authorities amenities).

Funding

Communities and native organizations can apply to both construct a brand new complementary entry answer to attach the unconnected or develop an present one. The funding requested for every application is anticipated inside, however not restricted to, the following ranges:

• $15,000-$40,000 USD to construct new complementary entry options to attach the unconnected.
• $5,000-$20,000 USD to develop or enhance present complementary entry options to attach the unconnected.

How To Apply

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