Successful Implementations of Last Mile Internet Solutions in Emerging Markets

Emerging markets have in many instances realized the importance of last mile solutions and applied it to boost socioeconomic growth and create solutions that embrace the fourth industrial revolution. The internet is an enabler of sustainability, even in regions that are geographically distant from industrial hubs such as large cities. Acknowledging these initiatives, identifying the challenges faced and how these challenges were overcome, as well as recognizing the technologies used to implement these solutions is important for companies, especially for local small and medium-sized enterprises, to learn from and improve new innovative last mile solutions to connect the last billion. Training the local populations and increasing the number of skilled workers in emerging markets, together with researching and analyzing successful last mile implementations provides the tools to eradicate the digital divide, empower local people, spearhead sustainable socioeconomic growth and prepare the emerging world to participate in the fourth industrial revolution. This chapter researches successful last mile implementations in emerging markets and presents the successes and failures of each of these solutions.