In collaboration with the Government of Honduras, Giga has launched a Request for Proposals (RFP) to select suppliers to enter a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) for the provision of internet connectivity to public schools in different municipalities.
Of the 17,000 schools in Honduras, only 3% are connected. Furthermore, over 68% of the population has no access to the Internet. This persists despite many communities being covered by 4G.
The Government of Honduras has bolstered efforts toward digitization since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but school and overall connectivity remains limited. Giga is aiming to connect a small cluster of schools in order to derive lessons and best practices that can be used towards furthering the national connectivity objective.
The end goal of the RFP is to provide these schools with sustainable connectivity using innovative business models and technology, while also using the schools as hubs to redistribute high-speed connectivity to the surrounding communities. We are hoping to establish whether the schools can monetize the connectivity services they receive and raise funds to cross– subsidize their own bandwidth costs as a way of ensuring sustainable connectivity once the project has ended.