In our world, five billion people live in developing countries. Those same five billion people have little or no access to even the most basic forms of communication technology. For example, the continent of Africa has less telephone connections than the city of New York. The vast majority of these land lines are concentrated in the urban areas. Any of the lines that do exist are unreliable, prone to failure, and take weeks to repair. Under these conditions, internet access through a telephone line is only available in the large cities of Africa.

Africa is not the only continent plagued by these difficulties. Poor nations in Asia or the Middle East or South America cannot afford to develop an extensive communications infrastructure. In contrast, the people living in developed countries have unlimited opportunity for communication. This technological division between developed and developing nations has become known as the "digital divide." The TU Sat 1 Program is trying to bridge the divide and bring low-cost access to third-world regions.

As the World Bank has pointed out, advanced connectivity capabilities would bring a host of benefits to developing countries. Such benefits would include:

• Spurring onward new and more efficient economic growth.
• Encouraging education through access to information and people outside the geographical limitations of the country.
• Providing better healthcare through networking and access to resources.
• Improving public administration in collecting information and distributing materials.
• Building the infrastructure and the cohesion of society.
• Uplifting the quality of living in general.

The Networking Revolution and the Developing World.
The Information for Development Program (infoDev), World Bank. August, 2000. pgs. xiii - xvi