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"Space institute to float internet-transmitting balloons over remote Amazon regions to help rural communities get online"

"Google has made it public knowledge for some time that it wants to connect the world to the internet. The challenge of facilitating this in remote areas has seen the search giant come up with some seemingly unorthodox methods, such as its TV white space project in South Africa. Now it's extending the use of existing technologies to provide wireless networks across Africa and Asia with blimps."

"The most hated company in the world right now isn't a member of Big Oil. It's not a shady Internet company or a bailed-out megabank. Populist discontent toward dirty energy, high-tech snoops, and greedy bankers has occasionally been fierce, but it's never been laser-focused like the outrage that drew an estimated (by the organizers) 2 million protesters to anti-Monsanto rallies in more than 50 countries at the end of May."

The project is part of the 4Afrika Initiative, an investment programme being announced by technology giant Microsoft, that also includes a new Windows Phone 8 smartphone for the region and investment in help for small businesses on the continent, and in education and internships.For the white spaces project, the company is working with a Kenyan ISP, Indigo Telecom, and the Kenyan government. The ISP is installing wireless 'base stations' - or masts - that are solar-powered, to get round the lack of mains electricity. The base stations act as a link to the nearest main cable connection to the internet, without the expense of extending the fibre-optic network. The solar panels will power the bases stations - and also charge computer equipment The signal supplied is much more powerful than normal wifi.

Mobile phone ownership across the continent is rocketing, but can it expand higher education's reach and quality? Basic handsets, many without internet capability, dominate; smartphone penetration, in the industry jargon, is estimated to be 15 per cent at most Lesego is 18 and lives in an isolated village in western Botswana.