Imagine a village way beyond broadband infrastructure or even phone lines. Such areas are the target of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and the Intel Classmate PC programmes, designed to get low-cost computers into poor communities. These initiatives have deployed a combined 2.6 million laptops to remote communities around the globe. There are plans to deploy 30 million more in the next 5 years just to East Africa. This number accounts for only the laptops from these two main organisations which are by no means the only players in the market. There have been thousands of other laptops, tablet PCs and desktops donated as part of ICT initiatives run by various charitable organisations from around the world. 

All of these initiatives have the best intentions to distribute digital technologies to those less fortunate communities. However there is a major and fundamental problem. A large percentage of the devices are in remote regions where there is no existing internet or any other method of information transfer. These devices are digitally disconnected and have no way of receiving new updated information, or native language content meaning, they are unable to utilize the potential of the digital world. There is currently no existing solution to this huge issue, and that is what the OneBeep solution addresses. 

OneBeep has developed an inexpensive and robust method to send digital content to these devices. Using OneBeep's software any digital file can be converted to audio, which is then sent via radio waves. This can be received on any AM/FM radio, which passes it on to the laptop via an inexpensive audio cable. The file is then converted back to its original form once it has been received on the devices. As every village has AM radios, you now have a low-cost way to beam out daily lessons, health material etc over long distances to thousands of devices.

This approach will help us build a broader, more robust business which is resilient to competition and able to grow. Our goal is to be the world leaders in providing internet connectivity and content to impoverished and under-served communities.