For most of us, the internet is as invisible and essential as electricity. We use it to settle bills, attend doctor’s appointments via video call, and navigate our cities. Yet, this digital ubiquity is a privilege of the few. According to data from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), more than 2 billion people—nearly 30 percent of the global population—remain offline, cut off from the economic and educational opportunities that connectivity provides.
Bridging this divide requires more than just laying fiber-optic cables or launching satellites; it requires a fundamental shift in how we approach connectivity in the world’s most isolated regions. This is the driving force behind the IEEE Future Networks’ Connecting the Unconnected (CTU) initiative. Since 2021, the program has moved beyond theoretical research to accelerate the deployment of 5G, 6G, and next-generation networks specifically designed for those the traditional market has ignored.
As a former software engineer, I’ve seen how the “build it and they will come” mentality often fails in emerging markets. The technical challenge is significant, but the systemic barriers—affordability, lack of infrastructure, and absence of business mentorship—are often the real hurdles. The CTU approach acknowledges this by treating connectivity not as a product to be delivered, but as an ecosystem to be cultivated.
Crowdsourcing Grassroots Innovation
Rather than relying solely on corporate giants, the CTU program utilizes a global competition to find “bottom-up” solutions. The challenge attracts a diverse array of participants, including students, startups, and nonprofits. In its most recent cycle, the program saw 245 projects submitted from 52 different countries, signaling a global appetite for decentralized connectivity solutions.
The competition is structured to support projects at different stages of maturity, separating theoretical concepts from functional proofs-of-concept. To ensure the solutions are holistic, entries are divided into three distinct categories:
| Category | Focus Area | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Technology Applications | Hardware and software innovations | Broaden physical broadband access |
| Business Model | Financial and operational frameworks | Improve the affordability of services |
| Community Enablement | Public adoption strategies | Promote widespread broadband usage |
The results of this approach are often unconventional and highly localized. Recent winners include a solar-powered community broadband network in Tanzania and a low-cost internet access method utilizing FM radio, and SMS. In India, innovators developed a strategy to leverage existing rural broadband infrastructure to deliver critical medical services to isolated tribal regions.
“Our job is to help further develop the technology, look for gaps, and see if it is good enough to be applied to rural villages, like those in Africa and India,” says IEEE Fellow Ashutosh Dutta, a CTU cochair and professor at Johns Hopkins University. “The idea behind the contest is to make sure the technology actually gets implemented at the grassroots level.”
The 1,000-Day Bridge to Sustainability
A common failure in tech philanthropy is the “pilot trap,” where a project works in a controlled trial but collapses once the grant money runs out. To combat this, IEEE partnered with the Lemelson Foundation to launch the Empowerment Through Mentorship program. This initiative recognizes that a brilliant engineer is not necessarily a seasoned entrepreneur.
The program provides a rigorous, 1,000-day guidance period, pairing innovators with industry leaders who provide coaching on scaling, marketing, and fundraising. This long-term commitment is designed to move a project through three tiers of development: focusing first on the individual’s needs, then on the technical invention, and finally on the venture’s commercial viability.
Kory Murphy, program officer for U.S. Invention and entrepreneurship at the Lemelson Foundation, notes that the partnership leverages IEEE’s international network to support disadvantaged areas, particularly in India. The goal is to create a “robust ecosystem” where entrepreneurs in East Africa, India, and the U.S. Have the tools to turn a prototype into a sustainable business.
Scaling via Global Standards
For a local innovation to have a global impact, it must be standardized. Without common technical guidelines, a solar-powered receiver built in one village cannot be easily replicated or integrated into larger networks elsewhere. The CTU working group collaborates with the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) to identify projects with the potential to become international benchmarks.
This process is highly selective. While roughly half of the submitted projects are reviewed for standard implications, only a handful typically move forward. One notable success is IEEE P1962, a standard for providing broadband connectivity to rural infrastructure by utilizing solar panels as optical communication receivers. By specifying the architecture for energy-efficient, high-speed optical wireless communication, the standard allows other developers to build compatible, affordable hardware.
To support this scaling, the CTU program has expanded its reach through regional summits in Washington, D.C., Bangalore, and Abuja. These gatherings bring together policymakers and engineers to discuss the “non-technical” side of the divide: regulation, financing, and sustainable business models.
“IEEE Future Networks has created a community to bring all these initiatives working on digital connectivity together in a single platform,” says IEEE Life Fellow Sudhir Dixit, a CTU cochair. “We are a unifying force.”
The next critical milestone for the initiative is the 2025 IEEE Connect the Unconnected challenge. The submission period for new innovations remains open until June 19, with the judging phase scheduled to run from July through October.
Do you believe decentralized, grassroots tech is the answer to the digital divide, or should the focus remain on large-scale infrastructure? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
