NET4DC: connecting the unconnected

Connectivity can improve education Enlarge image (© NET4DC - FOKUS) For around five million people living in developing and structurally weak regions around the world, opportunities are limited when it comes to medical care, education, and involvement in economic or political life. One obstacle standing in their way is a lack of access to the Internet and to regional communications infrastructures. It was precisely in order to connect these regions to the Internet that the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS launched the NET4DC project.

Already connected: Lab technician at Macha's malaria hospital working on the internet

Bringing internet connectivity to more people in Africa

Providing Internet access for the inhabitants of remote villages in Africa is by no means an easy task. As part of the NET4DC project, Fraunhofer researchers are now designing technologies specifically adapted to the requirements of individual developing countries. Better Internet connection for the Ubuntu Campus, an isolated settlement near the village of Macha in Zambia, is just one of their successes.

Greater connectivity for Africa

Fraunhofer FOKUS: connecting the unconnected Africa

Innovative technology transforming remote areas of Africa

An ambitious project by a German research institute hopes to “connect the unconnected” in rural Africa. FOKUS NET4DC is taking innovative telecommunications technology to areas largely cut-off from the advances of the Internet or cell phones in the hopes of creating sustainable access to global networks and, ultimately, adding value to the population's day-to-day lives.

Innovative technology transforming remote areas of Africa

NET4DC: connecting the unconnected

The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft

The Fraunhofer Haus in Munich

Fraunhofer is Europe’s largest application- oriented research organization. Its research efforts are geared entirely to direct utility in private and public enterprise and wide societal benefit: health, security, communication, energy and the environment. As a result, the work undertaken by Fraunhofer researchers and developers has a significant impact on people’s lives. There are 80 research units, including 59 Fraunhofer Institutes, at different locations in Germany. The total research budget is 1.6 billion Euro annually, of which only one third is contributed by the German federal and state governments.

The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft