Microsoft On The Issues offers perspectives from Microsoft on legal, public policy and citizenship topics. Microsoft passionately believes in the power and potential of technology, and that the right tech policies can help underpin innovation, encourage competition and ensure tech innovations continue to benefit everyone. Microsoft shares their point of view and ideas on topics as diverse as privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, environmental sustainability, education and corporate citizenship. Learn more at Microsoft On The Issues.
As of 2018, half of the world's population is online with some form of internet connection. The bad news is that, despite this progress, this status quo still puts billions of people on the wrong side of the digital divide. Leaving half the world without access to the electricity of today's age – internet access, and increasingly at broadband speeds – means that existing inequalities, poverty and insecurity will persist, worsen and become increasingly difficult to address.
That is why Microsoft is reaffirming our commitment to global connectivity. Through the new international track of the Airband Initiative, our goal is to extend internet access to 40 million unserved and underserved people around the globe by July 2022. We'll concentrate our efforts to areas with significant underserved populations – initially, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa – that also have regulatory interest in solving connectivity issues. Read more at Microsoft on the Issues.
