Why the idea of connectivity credits is gaining momentum

Today, despite the ubiquity of the internet and digital technology in some parts of the world, 2.6 billion people are still offline. This is the global digital divide.

This divide is only going to exacerbate wealth and socioeconomic status divides as technology advances. AI’s proliferation will hold back GDP in disconnected areas and widen the education gap. Issues accessing healthcare will make disconnected areas less healthy.

But with some 32% of the world’s population functionally offline, governments alone can’t fund enough networks to reverse this digital exclusion. The private sector must be involved, and connectivity credits could help to bridge this gap and deliver all the benefits of internet connectivity to these people.

Connectivity credits allocate schools (or other public facilities) “credits” based on how difficult it is to connect them. Internet service providers (ISPs) then earn these credits by supplying reliable service. In initial versions of the system, credits are backed by government subsidies or corporate social responsibility investments. The more remote or challenging the location, the higher the credit allocation. This creates a tangible reward for delivering connectivity where it’s least profitable.

The Giga initiative is a UNICEF–ITU partnership focused on supporting governments to connect every school to the internet. Giga has mapped more than 2.2 million schools globally, many of which remain unconnected, and built a real-time data platform tracking connectivity in nearly 100,000 schools. The map can automatically verify whether a school is connected and receiving its contracted connectivity. These combined data tools form the core open-source infrastructure behind connectivity credits

In 2024, after research across the 34 countries and territories engaged with Giga, the team behind connectivity credits began building prototypes in four countries. Although each version is distinct, they share a simple approach: incentivize local ISPs to extend service to rural schools and other public spaces in exchange for credits that are redeemable for cash, subsidies or licensing advantages.

Here’s what that could look like:

Malawi: Rural schools get partial subsidies (from universal service funds and discounted satellite links) for Year 1. Small ISPs then build out Wi-Fi and resell connections to nearby communities for ongoing revenue.

Mexico: A similar model, but in slightly higher-income areas, so ISPs are expected to repay some upfront capital, aiming to show how credits can eventually self-finance if usage grows.

South Africa: IHS Towers uses credits to count its contributions to government requirements. It helps fund small ISPs that connect schools and in return IHS can document verifiable social investment.

Kenya: Telcos like Liquid Telecom open underutilized fibre and tower space, with last-mile ISPs earning credits by connecting schools. Over time, the ISPs can use those credits to offset future license fees or to attract additional investment.

All four pilots include real-time verification: Giga’s monitoring software checks each school’s connection quality around the clock. If the link drops below a threshold, new credits will not be issued. This transparency aims to solve a common problem in public subsidies—ensuring that money truly translates into working internet. We envision a mechanism where the platform, currently being built on the Ethereum Testnet, will be incentivized for the data it provides.

Since the connectivity credits idea was conceived in 2021, a groundswell of interest and buy-in has pushed the movement forward.

Corporate interest: IHS Towers became the first global company to “buy” credits through its CSR programme in South Africa. This is encouraging other corporate partners and collaborators to look at buying credits where they need more digital infrastructure on the ground. Equinix, which manages internet peering (connections across networks) has made connectivity credits a cornerstone of its work with Giga.

Government partnerships: Several national ministries now reference connectivity credits in their communications and collaboration agreements with UNICEF and Giga. Although each country tailors the scheme to its policy environment, the underlying principle is the same: payments for verified service.

Open data, open source: Giga’s map publicly displays which schools are connected and how well. Local regulatory agencies can rely on these measurements to back credit issuance with minimal bureaucracy. This open-data approach draws comparisons to real-time carbon tracking, but for connectivity. Open source thinking is fundamental to ‘open source financing’ and is central to organizations like the Ethereum Foundation.

Digital Infrastructure: With increased demand for edge AI, and other compute and energy resources, connectivity credits are being seen as “digital infrastructure credits.” A credit might be exchanged not only by ISPs, but by data providers, compute clusters and others working on digital infrastructure in emerging and disconnected areas.

Careful credit valuation is needed. Offering too many credits per location can overstimulate the market; too few and it’s not worth the ISP’s cost. We have also learned a lot from the building of connections among digital infrastructure players – tower companies, fibre providers and local ISPs who can work better together when a credit system quantifies individual contributions and benefits.

The Geneva Connectivity Centre will be a hub of the work for Connectivity Credits because of clear Swiss regulation around blockchain-based industry. A neutral hub will maintain technical standards, certify data from each country pilot, and eventually run a global credit marketplace. Supporting academic research will be done by the newly launched University of Geneva Giga Research Lab.

Internet connectivity is often a confusing tangle of regulations, technologies, political interests, and stark disparities. A connectivity credits marketplace can help pay for performance and correct those disparities. It can also lower the cost of capital for small companies connecting the hardest-to-reach areas. Technology, and particularly the clarity of public blockchains, offers the chance to understand a complicated market in its full detail, and to ensure that vital public goods, like the internet, are available to everyone.

With thanks to the other authors who contributed to this piece: Alex Wong, Senior Advisor, Executive Office, and Co-Lead, Giga, ITU; Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of Solcon Capital; Bill Tai, Venture Capitalist and Co-founder of ACTAI Global; Marieke Flament, Special Advisor, Giga; and Harry Wilson, Product Lead, Giga.